Briar Rose Syndrome
by TheBeingOfEverything
Summary: Someone wants to teach Samael some humility. That the form their lesson takes may just kill him is something Rin has an issue with. Roping in a reluctant Amaimon to help him track down the culprit and a cure, Rin begins his quest to wake Mephisto before his sleep becomes permanent.*A Sleeping Beauty AU*
1. Wake Me Up (Wake Me Up Inside)

(A/N) This idea literally came to me in a dream, so consider this firmly AU to the aoex plot :D

Will feature demon kings that haven't been introduced yet (Beelzebub) or had their personalities fully fleshed out so I'll have to take some liberties with them :\

And an… interesting OC I think you guys are gonna like P:

Mephisto gets to be the Disney Princess he was always meant to be, Rin is his Prince Phillip, and Amaimon is the talking animal companion.

* * *

Awareness.

Where?

It was difficult to put his thoughts in order and consciousness was as tenuous as silken spider thread.

Sleep tried to pull him under again, lids shuttering as he struggled to focus his bleary vision.

He was floating in a still pool that stretched endlessly around his body until the edges of it faded into a hazy horizon against a formless sky.

The warm waters lapped at his cheek when he tilted his head to stare at gray, almost colorless surroundings with listless eyes.

How had he arrived in this place?

But the memory wouldn't come to him and the effort it took to recall why that might be important dragged at his mind until it slipped away like so many grains of sand.

Had he always been here?

And…

How would he get out?

He drifted, only the sound of his heartbeat and the faint breath from his lungs echoing in the vast silence keeping him company.

Who was he?

* * *

"Hey, Mephisto, you said you wanted to see me after the last mission to check on the Koma Sword?"

Rin had stepped into the office without knocking, figuring if Mephisto really wanted to keep him out he'd make it apparent pretty quickly.

But…

Rin narrowed his eyes, brows drawing in confusion as all that greeted him was a silent room.

A careful sniff, however, had him instantly wary for some kind of surprise attack.

Because he could still smell Mephisto somewhere in the room, the demon king's scent not faded like he'd been there and left, or like the usual scents of someone's space they regularly occupied but weren't currently in.

He scanned the room, keeping his back to the door because he would definitely not put it past the absolute bastard of a demon to not be playing a trick on him, waiting for him to drop his guard.

A scrap of familiar white fabric had him zeroing his focus to the side of Mephisto's desk, hands coming up to defend himself in-case that was the signal Mephisto was waiting for to pounce.

Nothing came at him and Rin let his lips fall back over his fangs, unbending from his tensed crouch to step closer, still not dropping his guard entirely.

As he neared, the scrap of white revealed itself to be the edge of Mephisto's cape and a shiver of apprehension went down his spine to see it so out of place.

If his cape was there, then where was Mephisto?

Rin made it and peered around the desk, unsure of what he'd find.

"Mephisto!"

He stumbled the rest of the way around, falling to his knees and turning the still body to reveal Mephisto's face slackened in unconsciousness.

No, Rin hesitated for all of a second before throwing caution straight to hell and reaching down to prod careful fingers to Mephisto's jaw, tilting his head to get a better look.

The stillness was not natural at all. Rin wasn't sure how he knew, but his instincts were screaming that something was horribly wrong with Mephisto.

His heart was pounding for some reason, Rin realized, falling back on his hands from the downed demon and darting his gaze to the rest of the room as if whatever had gotten Mephisto was still there.

A knock came from the door and Rin jerked his head up, realizing the compromising position he'd found himself in and breaking into a cold sweat.

Before he could react, the door opened and an exorcist entered, file held in his hand that he stared down at until he glanced up and noticed Rin.

"Uh," Rin gulped, still frozen on the floor to the side of the desk beside Mephisto's body, now more revealed after Rin had moved him so that he was clearly visible from the entrance.

The man stared at him, file held in a limp hand as if unsure how to react.

Rin's tail twitched in a nervous gesture, breaking the standoff.

He flinched as the exorcist dropped his file and pulled out a phone, mind going blank as he wracked his head for something to say to stop the panicked actions.

"The spawn of Satan has attacked Sir Pheles! I need back-up!" The exorcist barked into the phone, pulling a gun and training it on Rin's startled form.

"Ah! Wait, no!" Rin scrambled back until his shoulders impacted the wall behind him and he raised his hands to ward off the attack, "I just found him like this! I swear!"

When that only got the gun raised further, aiming for his head now, Rin yelped and threw himself behind the desk, pulling Mephisto along after him and having to use his demonic strength because the bastard was a stupidly tall, dead weight.

"I'm serious! There's something really wrong with him!" Rin called out, finding he'd hugged Mephisto to his chest in his scrabble for cover, sitting beneath the space under the desk with the demon's long legs thrown to the side over his lap and his ridiculous white cape a tangled bundle to the other side.

Stomping feet down the hall had Rin cowering over Mephisto and tightening his arms around him in an instinctive move as he darted his panicked gaze around, unable to come up with anything to diffuse the situation.

His nose and ears told him the room had become crowded, more exorcists filing in, each, he imagined, carrying plenty of weapons all aimed at him and every one of them on a hair-pin trigger.

"Step aside!"

Rin ducked further at the shouted command from a new presence, his head now tucked over Mephisto's shoulder where he froze, heart thudding in his chest and waiting for the exorcists to make their next move.

"Stand down."

The room quieted, the sound of weapons being shifted reaching Rin's ears, though his tension failed to ease.

"What's the situation?"

Rin listened as the first exorcist on the scene explained, fighting to keep from bursting out to correct him when he claimed Rin had felled Mephisto, like that was even possible!

"I see. Exwire Rin Okumura, will you explain yourself?"

Rin felt his breath stutter out of his lungs, relieved that the situation hadn't devolved into violence. Yet. "I was told to come here after my last mission by Mephisto. When I got here, I found him like this and then that guy came in and called everyone else. I didn't do anything!"

Silence met his words and Rin's hands twitched where they'd clenched, white-knuckled, into the suit over Mephisto's arm and at his back.

"Acceptable, come out, Okumura, we need to find out what happened to Sir Pheles."

It sounded… too good to be true, that there was someone amongst the exorcists- who he didn't already know, at least, who wasn't of the shoot first at the Satan spawn, ask questions later.

But Rin had no choice at this point. Unless he wanted to jump head-first out of Mephisto's window behind the desk and plummet to his death. There was always that option.

He settled Mephisto to the ground, trying to be gentle because seeing the usually so animated demon so still had him flat-footed and unsure how to handle him. His hand left the back of Mephisto's head against the carpet, the long purple bangs hanging limp and looking somehow less vibrant across his face in mussed strands.

Rin forced himself to stand, raising his hands up first over the top of the desk in surrender and hoping they didn't decide to open fire anyway.

A group of thirteen exorcists stood at the other side of the room by the door, put to order by the man who'd arrived to command them, but Rin could sense the tension vibrating in the air, an angry hornets nest waiting for an excuse to swarm.

"Good."

And the room became a hive of activity anyway, Rin standing to the side in awkward silence as Mephisto was brought into the open and stretched out until medical and research personal could be brought in, nobody wanting to move him before they could be sure it was safe to do so, since he appeared stable for the moment.

Rin couldn't seem to take his eyes off Mephisto, the sea of black uniforms moving in and out of his vision becoming a blur around the white figure laying in the center.

He was startled out of his daze when two people in lab coats entered, walking up to Mephisto as the room fell still to let them closer.

"Who was the one who discovered him like this?" The woman asked, glancing around the room with narrowed eyes.

Rin was indicated, feeling his heart skip a beat at suddenly having the attention back on him as he was called over to where they stood above Mephisto.

"And you say he was already unconscious when you arrived?" The man asked, crouching to study Mephisto closer, shining a light into the demon's unfocused green eyes.

"Uh," Rin coughed, voice scratchy, "yeah, uh, I walked in and saw him over behind the desk."

When that just prompted a low hum from the man, Rin hesitated, but figured he couldn't get in any more trouble than he already was and blurted out, "um, I don't know how to describe this, but something feels wrong with him. Really wrong."

That got a sharp look from the two researchers before they shared another with each other, the woman speaking finally, "and you're Rin Okumura, spawn of Satan. A demon."

Er, what? Rin nodded, not sure why that was any more relevant than it had ever been.

"There's really nothing else I can think of that could fell a demon king, they certainly don't get sick like we do," the man muttered, gaze narrowing again as he brought a hand to his chin in thought.

"You're right, especially if he can sense it," the woman said, then sighed, and Rin felt anxiety press at his chest. Because that sigh sounded defeated, like over a failed project or a doctor whose patient had just died on the table.

"It's the King Killer."

Rin's heart dropped into his stomach at the foreboding name and he darted a quick look to the others in the room to see if they knew what it was either, though many seemed as confused as he did. "What's that, is he gonna be okay?"

The man huffed out a wry laugh, "it's a curse, also known as Briar Rose Syndrome for the way its effects work. It sends the afflicted into a coma-like sleep until their bodies are consumed by the energy eating away at them. A demon king usually jumps bodies when their host becomes too degraded, but the curse prevents this until they die with their host."

"It's happened once before."

Rin jerked his eyes up at that. Another demon king? "So you can fix it?"

He flinched when the man shook his head in the negative, "unfortunately there's never been a cure reported. Actually, the only reason the Order even knows about the fallen king is because the others created records of them, since after their passing all knowledge disappeared from the collective minds of humanity."

Through the whole explanation Rin couldn't turn away from the man speaking, the way he so casually implied certain death for Mephisto like it was an unfortunate turn of the weather, and not the terrifying realization it actually was.

"Actually, this is a fascinating opportunity for us," The woman said, drawing Rin's horrified attention, blood draining from his face as he watched a keen look form on hers, "we've never been able to record the effects of something of this nature and we may never get the chance to again."

Rin didn't have any particularly close bond with Mephisto, the elder demon tending to enjoy teasing him every chance he got and generally being an absent caretaker and kind of a frightening, eccentric entity at the best of times.

But that didn't mean Rin wanted him to die.

"Then are we to believe Sir Pheles is lost to the Order? Shall I report this to the Grigori so we can get someone to fill his position as head of the Japan Branch?" The exorcist spoke up, staring with a cool gaze down at Mephisto before bringing his attention back to the researchers.

Rin turned frantic, wide eyes on the humans in the room, unable to believe that everyone seemed so calm and business as usual, talking about replacing Mephisto like he was already dead.

"It's a pity," the woman responded, shrugging, "I'm sure the Grigori will want to investigate how he was afflicted as this is most certainly an act of aggression against the Order. But at the very least we'll have another king to study before his body gives out."

Was that a smile on her face? Was she _excited_ about the situation?

"We should be able to get some interesting results from him that we haven't had the opportunity to yet, since we needed him alive and couldn't damage the host body too much before he would have been forced to exit it to find a new one."

What…

Rin felt a growing fury buzzing in his head, a sickness eating at his insides. His fangs had extended in his mouth without him noticing and he licked his suddenly tapered tongue against them, a surreal stillness taking hold over his body.

"We can start taking samples as soon as the Grigori sign off on it, though I doubt it will be too long since there's no known cure for this and they won't want to waste time getting what we can from him."

The man stood, rubbing a hand at his lab coat idly before waving it at the nearest exorcists, "if you'll gather the body, we need to transport it to the lower labs. There's nothing more to do here. Lock up this room and set guards so whatever information regarding the Order inside remains untouched until they send his replacement."

"Like hell you are."

The room fell silent at Rin's dangerous hiss, the two exorcists who'd been lifting Mephisto dropping him back the carpet with a thud as a primal fear from the rising growl coming from Rin registered to their human senses.

"I," the man stuttered, fumbling the light he'd been about to put away, "I'm sorry?"

Rin's hands clenched, the claws he'd formed there biting into his palms until blood welled up and dripped to the cream carpet beneath his feet.

"I'm not gonna let you do that to him."

The man gulped, sweat breaking on his skin and pulse fluttering in his neck when Rin's gaze slid to meet his, "ah, I'm not sure what you mean? He's already dead, there's nothing more to do here."

The exorcist moved, then, approaching Rin with a wary gait and raising a hand as if to touch his shoulder, "you'd best return to your dorm, Okumura, we'll have a confidentiality contract- and likely a Morinath Contract done up for you as well about the situation, so be on the lookout for that. Please speak of this to no one in the meantime."

The hand touched his shoulder.

Rin exploded.

Screams met his ears as blue flames erupted around him and he shoved the exorcist aside, the man falling with a grunt, to reach Mephisto. He was pulling the demon up into his arms and leaping to his desk, bringing Kurikara up to smash through the window in a swath of flames that preceded him as he followed them to the outside.

Shouts trailed behind him alongside the rain of glass as Rin fell to the roof beneath, tile cracking like a gun-shot when he landed in a ball of blue flames.

He didn't waste any time, some remainder of his mind knowing it was only a matter of seconds before the shooting started and he had to be out of range.

The rest was focused on not tearing every human in that room apart for the way they'd all went along with what amounted to murder. To torture.

A snarl tore its way from his throat, even though there was no one around to hear him besides Mephisto, having leapt to the next nearest roof to escape from the Academy.

How could-

Those, those disgusting-

Absolute monsters!

And no one had even _said_ anything!

Rin wanted to spit flames- could feel them flaring from between his fangs anyways, at the cruelty of it all.

Mephisto was a dead weight in his arms as he forced himself to calm, beating back the flames to keep from becoming a beacon for every exorcist in the area since he was sure they'd be alerted soon.

If they hadn't been already.

The wind whipped around his body but all he could feel were the faint breaths coming from Mephisto where he held his head to his neck.

He'd made it into the lower levels of the tiered city, hoping the maze of small alleys and mobs of humans would help hide their presence.

Not, Rin grimaced, looking down at the purple hair, pink striped leggings, weird poofy white shorts, and lanky figure of the demon king in his arms, that it would make much difference.

They were too loud, stood out from the crowd- especially since Mephisto was unconscious in his arms and he had a now sheathed sword in his hand.

What could he do?

Rin stared with glazed eyes at the narrow walls of the alley he'd hid themselves in and over the still form of Mephisto, his grip tightening and loosening in his indecision.

Yukio.

Rin snapped his gaze up. Yukio would know what to do.

He cursed the shitty luck that had made him leave his phone with Yukio, though it had been dead anyway. He had to make it back to his dorm somehow, Yukio having parted from him after the mission to shower and get ready for classes the next day.

Path decided, Rin didn't spend more time thinking about it, very aware of the noose closing in around him with every second wasted.

After strapping Kurikara back into place, he hefted Mephisto more securely in his arms, summoning his energy to begin the trek and hoping he could make it without drawing any more attention.

Rin launched himself between the lower buildings in the city, trying to stay out of view of any main roads and sticking to the narrower passages as much as he could. Especially when he'd caught sight of the familiar black uniforms of the exorcists in the distance.

He needed another way to transport Mephisto, Rin was becoming aware. Because if he needed to fight in a hurry, he'd have to drop Mephisto to get to his sword and that would take too long, leaving him open to attack.

What he needed was another demon to help him, which, Rin bit at his lip, glancing down to where Mephisto's hair lashed at his face on the next jump, where was he even gonna be able to find one of those?

Really, the only two demons he regularly associated with, besides Mephisto, were Ukobach and…

"That's it!" Rin breathed a sigh of relief.

Kuro. His cait sidhe familiar was the only one who could possibly help him both as another defender and as transport to… wherever he ended up fleeing to. He'd worry about a location later.

That was when a massive force impacted into him and slammed him down to the ground, stealing Mephisto from his arms while he gagged in the crater made by his body.

"What did you do to him."

It was worded like a question, but it sounded like a threat, Rin vaguely registered, chest heaving in empty breaths as his cracked ribs healed by painful inches.

He coughed once, blood flecking his lips, and he could breathe again, taking in gasps of air into his deprived lungs.

That demon- what was his name again? Who'd attacked him at the amusement park and in the forest was standing across from him, Mephisto leaning against a green-tight clad leg, only held up by a black clawed hand at his collar and head tilted to rest at an uncomfortable looking angle.

"I," Rin coughed again, voice coming out rough as he pushed himself to unsteady feet, "didn't do that to him."

Gold, slit-pupiled eyes narrowed at him as the demon cocked his head, the move making Rin's hackles raise because it brought to mind striking snakes and the calm before the storm.

"Then who did." Came the hissed question, once again said as a statement.

"I don't know!" Rin burst out, feeling his flames roil under his skin as he had to answer the same question for what felt like the millionth time and already prepared to not be believed. "I just found him like that! And they were going to just let him _die_\- they were going to torture him for some stupid experiments or something! I had to get him out of there."

That got a slight widening of the demon's eyes, quickly turned down to look at Mephisto before coming back up to meet Rin's

"Who. Were."

Rin took a shuddering breath, seeing the demon's patience running out and knowing he had to talk fast or risk his ire, "the exorcists at the Academy. And the researchers there. They said he was cursed, something called the, er, King Killer? Briar Rose something? I can't remember but they said it would kill him and there's no way to cure it."

The demon blinked at his answer before ignoring Rin to look more closely at Mephisto with curious eyes on his otherwise blank face.

Maybe there was a cure? Rin held his breath as he waited to see if the demon knew more about Mephisto's condition than the exorcists had, hope fluttering in his chest that he'd be able to leave Mephisto in the other's hands and forget the crazy last hour of his life.

A fang-filled smirk sliced across the demon's face.

"Hah!"

Rin's heart skipped a beat.

"Getting caught in a curse, Samael?" The demon sneered, shaking the limp body in his grip and laughing again, "such a stupid way to go. How the mighty have fallen."

Rin was on him in a second, fist cracking across his smirking face and knocking him into his own crater at the far end of the alleyway wall.

"You bastard!" Rin snarled at the groaning form from where he kneeled over Mephisto, one clawed hand pressing him to his chest while he held the other in defense over his back.

He was too furious to even be scared by the way the demon rose in silence, any signs of his previous humor wiped from his expression. Only the faint sounds of the city and the slight tap of the blood running down his face to drip to the ground reaching Rin's ears.

A long, tapered tongue came out to lick one of the red trails, only serving to smear it in a macabre stain on his skin.

The demon leveled a considering look at him and Rin felt a growl start to build when he made to come close again.

Shifting, like boots over gravel, reached Rin's ears a second before the sound of a cocking gun did and he froze, eyes widening in fear and heart beat stuttering when he realized it was from directly behind him at the entrance to the alley.

"Step away from him, Amaimon, or I'll start shooting."

Well, he had a name for the demon, now.

Relief swept through Rin's chest, gasp leaving his mouth, and he almost turned to the person who'd spoken if not for the instincts telling him to keep his eyes on Amaimon at all times or risk an attack.

Amaimon blinked, a slow move over gold eyes reminiscent of a predator sizing up prey as he watched the newcomer.

A toothy smile lit on his face and Rin felt his heart drop. "No, you won't."

Why wouldn't he-? Rin turned, then, the need to see what reaction Amaimon's words had garnered overcoming his instincts.

Yukio stood behind him, arms raised to sight his weapons on Amaimon, expression betraying nothing and aim steady.

Movement came from by his feet and Rin felt another bit of the tension stringing along his spine ease.

Kuro smiled at him before turning to level a glare at Amaimon with all the fierceness available to his little cat body.

The stalemate continued, Rin caught in the middle, still stuck crouched over Mephisto and watching to see who would break first. He twitched as Yukio tightened his fingers on the twin triggers, waiting for deafening shots to sound, but Yukio was gritting his teeth and lowering his guns a moment later.

"Yukio?" Rin breathed, question in his voice, and he could see Kuro staring in surprise too.

He glanced back to Amaimon and saw him watching with not so subtle triumph on his face.

"He's right," Yukio said, not looking happy at all about the admission, "there's patrols all over the city, I had to sneak into one once I heard the orders go out to the exorcists. I can't let them know I found you."

Rin bit at his lip, the sounds from outside the alley suddenly taking an ominous tone to them as if they'd be discovered any second.

"What were you thinking, Rin?"

Rin flinched at the anger now in Yukio's voice, knowing it had been coming. "I didn't have a choice, Yukio, they were gonna just- kill him! Take him apart like some kinda lab experiment, and they wanted me to be quiet about it!"

He was getting angry about it again, snarl forming on his face at the insanity of who were supposed to be the good guys. Though, given what they'd been about to do to him during his own trial, he shouldn't have been so surprised.

"I couldn't let them, Yukio," Rin said, then sighed, staring down at Mephisto as a weariness settled in his bones, "they probably removed that suspension on my execution order, huh."

It was Yukio's turn to flinch, dropping his gaze, and answering, "yeah, you've got kill on sight orders out for all top-level exorcists and flee and report for all others."

Up until then, Amaimon had remained quiet, though it was impossible for Rin to forget his presence, and he'd kept him in sight out of the corner of his eye. Not that the blank expression revealed anything of what the demon was making of their conversation or the revealed information anyway.

Still, Rin was immediately paying full attention as Amaimon spoke.

"I'll help."

Rin jerked his head up, eyes widening at that declaration and blurting out, "what? Why?"

Amaimon shoved his hands in his pockets, gaze flicking down to Mephisto before he answered, "I owe him. And I'll be damned twice over if I let a bunch of humans get their hands on him for their worthless experiments."

"Owe him?"

They didn't get a chance to talk about it further.

A shot cracked out, bullet impacting the brick right past Amaimon's face, the chips shattered and stinging past his face to leave red lines down his cheek as he snarled at the attack.

They'd been discovered.

A group of exorcists had rounded the alley, and Rin could already hear them calling for back-up even as he hunched over Mephisto, trying to make them a smaller target.

Kuro was on them in an instant, breaking their numbers up as he transformed into his larger form to distract them from firing at Rin.

And Yukio was tugging him up, forcing Rin to heave Mephisto into his arms as his twin pulled him towards Amaimon, "I can't protect you here, Rin, they have me on watch, I barely made it here to tell you. You can't come home, not without him awake."

Rin stared, bewildered, at Yukio's words, just reaching him over the cacophony around them.

He was shoved at Amaimon, Yukio giving the demon a fierce glare, but a pained cry from Kuro had him continuing in a rush, indicating Mephisto with a nod, "he's the only one who can call them off now. I hate to say this, but it looks like Amaimon is your best bet."

Yukio had a hand in his hair and was bringing their foreheads together to deliver his final words, quiet, so that only Rin could hear, "be careful, don't trust him. He's still a demon."

There were plenty of reasons not to trust Amaimon, Rin knew, but, "so am I, Yukio."

An object was pushed into his hand and Rin took it from Yukio to shove into his pocket, recognizing the feel of a phone as he pulled back.

"This is a burner phone, they can track your cell so I couldn't get you that."

Mephisto was grabbed out of Rin's arms, Amaimon having lost patience. "We don't have time for this!"

Adrenaline pounded through Rin's body, seeing Kuro losing ground as more and more exorcists made it to their position.

"Go, Rin, they won't do anything to me and I need to stay behind to watch the situation from this side, we'll hold them off until you can get out of here!"

And Yukio was gone, ducking behind the limited cover in the alley and going to help Kuro.

He didn't have time to say anything else. A hand gripped around his waist and jerked him back and suddenly they were airborne, Amaimon hauling them into the sky above the fighting below.

Rin had one last look at his twin and his familiar and the black swarm of exorcists converging on them before a snap came and they were gone entirely.

Then it was just Rin, Amaimon, and a comatose Mephisto alone in some random forest meadow where the demon had teleported them in the time it took Rin to blink.

The arm around him let go without preamble and Rin stumbled to the ground, dizzy after the end to the action as he tried to adjust, finding his breaths were coming too fast in his lungs.

Reality had just hit him as what he'd done fell over his head like ice.

He fell to his knees, finding his fingers had claws on them as he dug them into the dirt, shivering and staring at the thin blades of sun-yellowed grass with glassy eyes. "What did I just do?"

"Having regrets already? It's too late for that," came the unsympathetic voice from over his shoulder.

For some reason, Amaimon's callous statement calmed Rin's panic and he was able to take a steadying breath, leaning back on his feet in a crouch to look up at their surroundings.

Still unfamiliar.

Rin stood and brushed the dirt from his hands, trying to cover the remainders of the tremors running through them.

"Where are we?"

Amaimon just shrugged, having dropped Mephisto next to his feet in a heap. "Away from the city, we're safe to talk here."

Wincing at the uncomfortable position Mephisto had ended up in, Rin had to resist the urge to go adjust him because he would prefer not getting in Amaimon's personal space any more than he had to.

Now that the adrenaline had worn off, the sense of wrongness that seemed to hover in a miasma from Mephisto's body had Rin chewing his lip in worry.

"So, you don't know what's wrong with him, either?" He forced himself to look back up at Amaimon. "I was hoping another demon would know something about it that they- I mean, the humans, didn't."

Amaimon crossed his arms, staring down at Mephisto, mouth tugging into a frown as he studied him. "I recognize the name of the curse. Briar Rose Syndrome."

Rin felt his heart jolt, though his hopes were crushed at the demon's next words.

"Samael mentioned it to me. Once. And he refused to talk about it after that time."

Something about the way Amaimon said it and the way his face closed off had Rin swallowing around a dry throat in uneasiness, not liking the implications.

"Why?"

Those gold eyes watched him and it was like the façade of humanity fell away to reveal an ancient and tired being beneath.

"You mentioned the other name of the curse. King Killer."

Rin's breath stopped in his lungs as Amaimon grit his fangs together, head turning down to look at Mephisto with a strange bitterness on his features. "The humans don't remember, but we used to be nine."

This was, Rin realized, more insight into demons than he'd ever received in cram classes and he didn't know what to do with it all.

The look on Amaimon's face was wiped off as he shook himself out of what Rin thought might be memories.

"Who was the other?" Rin managed to ask, not knowing if he even wanted to hear the answer but something in him making him anyway, a morbid curiosity bringing the words to his mouth.

Instead of answering, Amaimon glanced up at the sky, shoulders sloping as he shoved his hands back in the pockets of his tattered coat. "Did you know, Space and Time came into being in almost the same instance?"

The non-sequitur threw Rin and he blinked in confusion, "space and time?"

Amaimon cocked a crooked smile at him, "Samael used to be third in the order of power, before Abduxuel was taken by the curse and he moved up a rank by default."

A touchy subject, then, Rin winced, not knowing how he should feel about the death of a faceless demon king of space. But the information just had his mood worsening and he averted his eyes from the still body on the ground. "So there really isn't a way to help him. We're just supposed to watch him fade away?"

"I don't know."

That had Rin bringing his eyes back up in shock. "You mean there might be a cure?"

His question got a strange look from Amaimon, an obscure emotion flashing through his eyes as he seemed to consider Rin, though he had no idea why.

"I wasn't around for those years when Abduxuel was cursed and died. I only heard about it after it happened."

"So, someone else might know? One of the other kings?" Rin breathed, hope bringing a smile to his face. "Let's go, then!"

And was disappointed as Amaimon shook his head in the negative, bringing a clawed thumb up to chew at his long black nail. Rin wanted to press him to explain further but it looked like he was mulling something over and Rin was very aware that any chance of him succeeding in waking Mephisto and getting to go back home now depended solely on Amaimon.

Amaimon sighed, staring skyward and speaking more to himself than Rin, "can't take you to Lucifer, not with Samael so vulnerable, he wouldn't be able to resist the weakness. Maybe…"

What?

Rin frowned, "what are you talking about?"

Amaimon let out an irritated mutter, "politics."

Er, Rin tried to imagine Amaimon involved in human politics and every scenario ended in a pool of blood and screaming people fleeing an angry demon king.

"We'll go to Beelzebub first," Amaimon said, nodding to himself at the decision, though the name meant nothing to Rin.

"Who's Beelzebub?" Rin asked as Amaimon reached to pick Mephisto off the ground, the movement more careful than any Rin had seen him use yet and he wondered why he was being gentle now, though he doubted he'd get an answer.

His question only earned him a disbelieving frown from Amaimon. "You really don't know anything do you."

"Hey!" Rin said, scowl forming at the insult. "It's not my fault everyone thinks I already know stuff about demons, like I didn't just find out they even existed this summer."

The long sigh that drew out of Amaimon only made Rin scowl harder, not knowing why _he_ should be any more exasperated by Rin's lack of knowledge than Rin himself was.

"And he probably thought it was funny, watching you bump your way around in the dark," Amaimon grumbled down at Mephisto's unresponsive face as if cursing the trouble he'd brought them.

Yeah, Rin would definitely say that Mephisto got a kick out of teasing him, not that he didn't give as good as he got right back, which he was pretty proud of, actually.

Amaimon was already looking impatient so Rin hurried to his side, though he didn't think he needed to be close to the demon for him to teleport them, he also had no idea how the ability worked. Better safe than left behind.

"So," he said, hesitant, "where are we going?"

"To get a gift."

"Huh?"

Amaimon snapped his fingers and they vanished from the meadow.

* * *

A ripple disturbed the still waters around him, the first thing that had happened since he'd awoken.

He became even more alert when muffled shouting reached his ears as if from miles away, disturbing him further from the peace he'd settled into.

"…how the mighty have fallen."

"You bastard!"

His brows twitched.

He felt…

Irritated.


	2. It's In My Nature

It's In My Nature

Summary: Rin meets the Lord of the Flies, learns more about demon politics, and realizes the road to finding a cure for Mephisto is going to require a lot more sacrifice than he ever anticipated. From he and Amaimon.

A/N Here's to hoping Beelzebub is revealed to be even slightly like how I'm gonna be writing him or I'll feel real foolish lololol

Also, I don't understand the demon kings' teleporting abilities at all? Like Amaimon needs a key to get around Japan but Mephisto and Lucifer can literally just poof and they're there?

Maybe it's only the strongest kings (Lucifer, Samael, and Azazel, potentially?) that can go where they want, or maybe they have to have a familiarity with the place they're going to (like that movie Jumper) to be able to teleport there. Or maybe Amaimon can and he's just using the key to go to specific locations. I'm just giving all the demon kings the ability to teleport wherever they want :\

(But why can't Satan then? Since he tried to run away with Yuri but traveled on foot. Idkaaaay~)

* * *

Rin opened his eyes from where he'd flinched and closed them, sudden teleportation still not his favorite way to travel.

You never knew what you were going to get when you reached the other side.

"Uh, what?"

Like now, where apparently Amaimon had decided to take them to a rustic looking building in a clearly foreign country- if the language he couldn't recognize from the people around him was any indication, and the building was also a flower shop.

Or a plant shop? Rin definitely saw green growing things for sale inside someplace he could imagine Shiemi hanging out in, but not the fearsome demon leveling an impatient look his way.

Rin still didn't understand but followed Amaimon inside for lack of any alternative.

The light chime of the bell over the door and the scents of earth and growing things just added to the surreal nature of the whole experience.

And Rin was blinking over at the utterly bizarre scene of Amaimon interacting with someone in a non-violent way.

Amaimon spoke in that same language he'd been hearing outside, leaving Rin in the dark about what he was asking. Well, supposedly asking, since he couldn't seem to put effort into not making his questions sound like statements or orders.

But Mephisto was still thrown over Amaimon's shoulder like a ragdoll and the guy at the front desk had been stunned into silence.

A growl from Amaimon jolted the guy from his daze to stutter out his next words, once again incomprehensible to Rin. Somehow, though, he wasn't immediately fleeing the scene or calling the local authorities on them and was instead moving further into the shop, gesturing for them to follow.

That was when Rin noticed the pointed ears of the shop-clerk, his hair shifting aside when he went past them, and the situation became a little clearer.

He was forced to watch in silence as they were led around the store to various plants, none of which Rin recognized, but which Amaimon would shake his head at and give a short word that had them on to the next.

They stopped at some kind of cactus-looking thing and Rin crossed his arms, waiting for Amaimon to say 'no' to that one too only for the demon to tap a clawed finger against it and nod, saying something that must have been asking for the price.

A poof of smoke later and Amaimon had currency in hand for whatever country they were in and they were leaving, still stunned demon standing by the register as if he couldn't believe who had just bought a plant from his store.

New plant in tow that Amaimon vanished when they got outside, Rin finally couldn't contain the questions that had built up through that whole exchange.

"Okay, what? Why did you just buy a cactus?"

Amaimon stared down at him and Rin got the feeling he was wondering at his intelligence levels, familiar with the look after growing up with Yukio. "It's a carrion flower. It attracts flies but doesn't kill them."

"Okay?" Rin repeated, drawing the word out in the hopes that he could get some elaboration out of Amaimon.

Amaimon sighed, tapping a finger to Mephisto's back, exasperation once again in his voice. "We're going to Beelzebub, demon king of insects, eighth in Gehenna, and this is a gift for his collection."

Well, Rin blinked, that was oddly considerate of Amaimon and he said so, only for him let out a huff of amusement.

"It's politics," Amaimon said, shaking his head, though Rin had no idea why buying a plant was a part of demon politics.

Still, "uh, shouldn't we get out of the streets? I think people are starting to stare."

Amaimon shrugged, clearly not worried about what a bunch of inconsequential humans thought and raised his hand to snap them to their next location.

Once again, Rin found himself staring in wordless awe.

And in another country.

Rolling hills, neat rows of silvery-green trees covering them, and what parts weren't were covered in sprawling vineyards. Above it all rose a palatial Mediterranean villa with an equally as large glass conservatory next to it.

"Woah!" Rin yelped out, turning to take it all in and wondering how far the land around them belonged to the demon king who owned the place, seeing as there weren't any other signs of humanity.

Amaimon snorted at his enthusiasm and Rin glared over at him. "Hey, this is the first time I've been outside of Japan, I'm allowed to be excited, dammit."

That got a wry smile out of the demon, a fang flashing beneath quirked lips as he hefted Mephisto more securely over his shoulder and turned to walk up the long driveway to the villa.

"Then this should be eye opening for you."

Well, he wasn't wrong, Rin thought as they made it to the villa, though instead of stopping there, Amaimon continued on to the conservatory instead.

They entered a humid greenhouse filled to bursting and Rin's nose was assaulted by more scents than he could place, overwhelming him until he had to sneeze.

He walked into Amaimon's back, startling with another yelp and stumbling away a few feet.

"Hey! What gives?"

An unfamiliar presence registered itself to Rin's senses and he quieted, peering around Amaimon's shoulder to see the new person. Or rather, the new demon.

Dark features, an olive complexion, and piercing amber slit-pupiled eyes under black curls of hair stood out immediately to Rin. The muddy overalls and dirt-stained gardening gloves registered next. Finally, the demon king's low voice when he spoke, was, on the surface, calming and with an accent Rin couldn't place, until the undercurrent of danger- of threat, sent a shiver down Rin's spine.

"Amaimon," his gaze flicked to Rin's before focusing back, "this is a surprise, it's been awhile."

Amaimon snapped, bringing the cactus back out, "it has, Beelzebub. I brought a gift."

Beelzebub, right, Rin grimaced inwardly, wondering why every demon king had to choose such a mouthful of a name because it was really hard to keep them straight in his head.

Beelzebub's attention was drawn to the plant and Rin saw the flash of interest on his face until he reached to take it, delighted smile forming, "a starfish flower, and a variety I don't have yet! Thank you, Amaimon."

"I noticed it on my travels," Amaimon said, shrugging off the thanks, the motion shifting Mephisto.

"Come, I have to put this in its place," Beelzebub said, leading them further into the maze of walkways, speaking as he did, "and you can explain to me why you're here- and why you have Samael and Rin Okumura with you."

Rin flinched, eyes jerking up to stare at the mention of his name, how?

But Amaimon wasn't freaking out so Rin forced himself to keep his panic on the inside until he didn't feel so out of his element.

He became aware, then, of a low buzzing hum permeating the air of the greenhouse and Rin squinted until the source of the noise jumped out at him and he gave a silent gasp.

The whole place was alive with insects. A million crawling, flying, hopping creatures swarming in and out of the foliage and around Rin's head where he had it tilted back to track the black cloud in the air. Were those flies? Gnats? Mosquitoes? Rin grimaced, really hoping they weren't that last one.

Understanding reached him about why Amaimon had chosen that particular gift for Beelzebub as he watched a butterfly alight on a nearby flower.

A massive red plant-looking thing grabbed Rin's attention away from the butterfly, the smell from it hit Rin right after and he fought a gag at the sickly-sweet scent like rot. Flies buzzed through the air in a random pattern in and out of its insides and Rin hurried past it after the demons before he accidentally swallowed one of them or something.

They'd entered a smaller domed section of the greenhouse before they finally stopped. Rin shifted around when neither king said anything, Beelzebub setting the potted plant next to some similar ones and vanishing his gloves away while Amaimon stood back and waited.

"Samael is cursed."

Rin's heart jolted at the sudden words from Beelzebub, his back still turned to them as he contemplated the plant.

"Yes, the Briar Rose Syndrome," Amaimon responded and Rin saw him run a clawed thumb over Mephisto's back once before stopping when Beelzebub turned around.

"King Killer," Beelzebub murmured, amber eyes solemn in his face. "This will change everything."

Rin froze as those eyes were turned on him, not expecting the attention.

"And you? I have to admit, this isn't how I imagined out first meeting to happen. How do you play into things?"

Hesitation at being addressed had him glancing at Amaimon, only to see him arching a brow, giving him the freedom to talk.

"Ah, I found him like this in his office today and-"

He paused, licking at his dry lips and wondering why it was so hard to talk to this particular demon when for all intents and purposes he appeared the least antagonistic of the kings he'd met so far.

"-The exorcists were just gonna use him like research material without even _trying_ to save him." He bit the words out, that sharp anger he'd felt earlier turned into bitterness. "They were already writing him off and talking about calling in a new director like he wasn't still alive."

Rin knew, after Amaimon's reaction, the chances were pretty slim that Beelzebub would understand his reasoning any better, but he didn't know how else to explain himself to them

"I couldn't let them do that to him, it's just- wrong." Rin glanced down at Mephisto when he finished speaking, chewing at the inside of his cheek because he knew he sounded childish to the two demon kings. "So, I grabbed him and ran. And then Amaimon found me."

Beelzebub gave a slow blink at his words before turning to address Amaimon. "He's so very… human. I didn't anticipate that."

Amaimon sighed, propping a hand on his hip and Rin twitched in irritation. "It took forever and a half just to get him to play with me."

"Play?" Rin sputtered at the demon's blasé expression. "You interrupted me in the middle of a mission and stole my sword! And then you almost got me executed by the order!"

"Fascinating." Beelzebub stared, eyes wide at Rin's outburst and hand coming up to his chin as he observed him like he was one of his plants.

Before Rin could do anything other than glare at Beelzebub, he was focusing back on Amaimon and Rin let out a silent huff as he shelved his irritation for the moment. He had a feeling that scenarios like this one were going to become fairly regular if he kept up his current trend.

"Then you came to me. Why?"

"I need more information," Amaimon began, getting down to business. "I wasn't there for Abduxuel's cursing or his death and I know you were."

Rin realized he'd never seen such a side to the demon. In the few interactions they'd had, Amaimon had been impulsive, mocking, and eager for a fight. It was strange, Rin decided, but he wasn't able to consider it more as Beelzebub spoke again.

"I never expected you to get so involved, Amaimon." Amaimon shrugged again, wordless, and Beelzebub dropped it, sensing a closed subject when he saw one.

"This is a dangerous path you're taking." He hedged along a different route, but, at Amaimon's stubbornly impassive face, yielded. "Okay, I'll tell you what I remember from that time, although I wasn't there the last week of his life."

"Why not?" Rin asked when it seemed like Amaimon was going to ignore that information.

His question got him a wry smile from the demon king and Rin fought a blush that wanted to rise to his cheeks. Was that considered nosy? Was the answer obvious?

"It… wasn't a good time to be around Samael, then, his cruelty became-" Beelzebub's gaze darted away at some memory, "-exaggerated."

"Whose territory was he brought to?" Amaimon interrupted and Rin wondered why that was important but was starting to suspect it had more to do with 'politics' as Amaimon had said earlier.

"This was before their conflict, so Abduxuel was brought to Lucifer's."

Lucifer. Rin hid a shiver as he remembered the one encounter he'd had with the demon king of light, his presence and power impossible to forget.

"Why not Samael's?" Amaimon asked pointedly, fishing for something, if his narrowed eyes and slight frown were anything to go on, though Rin couldn't guess what.

"That, I'm not sure," Beelzebub hummed, hand coming to his chin again as he mulled something over, "it seemed to me, at the time, that Samael thought Lucifer would know of a cure, though that was the first time any of us had seen the curse so I couldn't say why."

"And the only one he would have told is Lucifer," Amaimon sighed again, though this time he didn't hide the frustration or the glare he sent towards Mephisto.

"Yes, a catch-22, as the humans say," Beelzebub said, sharing in the commiserating, though Rin still wasn't quite sure what the problem was. Or what a catch-22 was, actually.

Knowing he was going to regret asking, Rin blurted out his question anyway. It was either that or he keep listening to the conversation full of names and terms and other random things he didn't understand.

"So, if Lucifer is the only one who might know anything, why don't we just go to him? Er-"

They'd turned stunned eyes on him, and Rin hurried to get the rest out before they inevitably shot him down, "-I mean, not that I want to, but it sounds like he's the only one who has all the information, right? Unless there's someone else?"

Beelzebub broke the silence with an inelegant snort, eyes widened in gleeful disbelief until he dissolved into laughter.

"Dammit, I'm serious!" Rin growled out, hands clenching as a flush rose to his cheeks when that just made the demon king laugh harder.

He shot another glare over at Amaimon, finding him watching with an amused smile on his face.

"Ah, to be so young," Beelzebub said, grinning as he wiped at his eye with a clawed finger. "Samael is defenseless now, with an almost certain death fast approaching, and you are a valuable piece in their war.

He waved a hand, brushing aside Rin's affronted glower at being referred to as a piece in a war.

"All bets are off now and it's anyone's guess as to whether Lucifer will honor the previous terms they set down-"

The grin on Beelzebub's face widened into something dangerous and Rin felt his breath catch in his lungs at the next words.

"-Or whether he'll hand you straight over to Father."

Amaimon drew him away from the sly expression he hadn't been able to escape on his own, breaking the spell Rin had been trapped in with a cocky remark, "it's a good thing you ran into me first, the others are caught up in this war and you're almost as defenseless as Samael."

Rin wanted to point out that it was Amaimon who ran into him, actually, but Beelzebub was talking again so Rin restrained himself.

"Yes, it's just become clear to me why you came here, Amaimon," Beelzebub said, hands on his hips and smiling over at Amaimon. "You needed another neutral party to ease him into our world, it's surprisingly considerate of you, have you been spending too much time with the humans lately?"

Amaimon sneered at the taunt, "hardly, I needed him to get a crash course or we'd both be dead within days of reaching Gehenna."

Through it all, Rin grew more and more incensed, tail lashing behind him and his fingers digging claws into his arms where he had them crossed until he snapped out, "fine, I get it, I'm really far behind when it comes to knowing anything about anything. Whatever. Can we get back to fixing Mephisto?"

"He's optimistic," Beelzebub muttered to Amaimon.

Then the rest of Amaimon's words registered with Rin and he froze. "Wait, Gehenna?"

That stopped them from their banter, mood sobering and Rin found himself pinned with two pairs of unnerving eyes. The silence didn't help with his pounding heart because he hadn't known what to expect when he'd agreed to Amaimon's help but going to Gehenna hadn't been on the list.

His mind flashed to the day everything started, finding out whose son he was, blue flames, Shiro's death.

And Satan.

He'd almost gone to Gehenna that night through the gate and had avoided thinking about it since.

Rin couldn't take his eyes off of Amaimon, hoping he'd heard him wrong and knowing he hadn't.

"As I said, you've chosen a dangerous route." Beelzebub finally responded, before shaking his head and focusing on Amaimon again while Rin recovered, or tried to.

"Then your path is clear. You need to find Astaroth. He would know more than I do, and it may allow you to avoid Gehenna entirely. I hear he's gotten another body and has been skulking around Assiah for Father and Lucifer."

Something about the name Astaroth sounded familiar to Rin, though he couldn't place it, not understanding why it filled him with a low flame of anger and had his fangs itching to drop in his mouth. He sucked at his teeth, trying to calm himself from the weird reaction and listen so he didn't miss anything else important like possibly going to Gehenna.

But Beelzebub's last comment seemed to be the signal that they were finished with the visit.

"Let me walk you out," Beelzebub said, smile back on his face to replace the somber atmosphere.

It was strange, Rin thought, walking behind the two demon kings through the greenhouse. The juxtaposition between the friendly way Beelzebub had been throughout the conversation and the flashes of the demon that he really was meant Rin hadn't been able to relax the entire time.

At least with Amaimon it was pretty clear he was all demon, no hiding what he was behind a façade of humanity. Mephisto too, in his own mocking way, never pretended to be anything but what he was. Rin was beginning to appreciate that honesty the more demons he met.

There was something incredibly off-putting about Beelzebub that he couldn't wrap his head around and he wondered if it was just him or there was another reason for it. He would ask Amaimon later, once they were out of the greenhouse. He'd probably get laughed at again, but Rin was finding he didn't have much in the way of pride holding him back anymore.

His instincts were the only things familiar to him at this point and the rules he'd lived under his whole life weren't applying to his current situation. So, he was going to ask Amaimon a million questions until the demon got tired of him and told him to shut up because he needed to learn this new world as quick as possible or end up dead.

He didn't have the luxury to mess around like he had been at the Academy.

And, Rin watched the way Mephisto shifted in Amaimon's hold, he had an eccentric demon king's life riding on his not screwing up. It wasn't just his own life at stake.

"Ah, here, please take some of this for your journey," Beelzebub snapped his fingers and summoned a large jar of what looked like honey, "the hives are producing and I have more than I ever know what to do with, yet again."

Amaimon's eyes lit up as he saw the offering, taking it and vanishing it away to wherever things went when the demon kings did that.

"Thank you, Beelzebub," the earth king said, grinning at his acquisition, much politer than Rin had ever witnessed from him, though, he was now realizing he knew next to nothing about Amaimon.

And they were outside, Beelzebub saying his farewell to them before returning to the greenhouse. Before Rin could say anything, Amaimon snapped his fingers and warped them away.

Rin gasped at the abrupt teleporting, hand at his chest and turning bewildered eyes up at Amaimon. "Why'd we leave so fast?"

"Can you control your fire enough to burn anything that isn't your clothes and hair off of yourself?"

"What?" Rin gaped at the weird question.

A rumble caught him even more off-guard and Rin yelped as Amaimon drew his hand up, earth following like a mudslide up his and Mephisto's bodies until they were completely covered, only to slide away a moment later, leaving them spotless.

"What they hell was that?" Rin asked again, because, what?

Amaimon dropped Mephisto to the ground at his feet and Rin winced, back-peddling when the earth king stalked into his personal space and yanked his shirt collar aside.

"Ah- Hey! What gives?" Rin tried to step away but found his shoulder gripped in Amaimon's clawed hand while the other scrapped over his skin, sending shivers at having the dangerous black nails so near the artery there.

He felt a sharp pinch and yelped again. "Seriously, what are you doing, dammit?"

And froze when Amaimon brought his hand away to show a large tick that he'd plucked from Rin's neck.

"Oh my god, why was that in my skin?" Rin asked, shuddering in disgust.

The insect was crushed between black claws and Rin immediately started patting himself down, yanking his jacket off and loosening his tie to search for any more insects that might have hitched a ride.

Was he itching because one of them was burrowing into his skin or was that just a stray hair?

Ew ew ew ewewew!

"Beelzebub wouldn't let an opportunity like that slip by without at least trying to keep some of his spies on us," Amaimon finally answered, watching Rin strip to his boxers with impassive gold eyes.

Rin stopped his frantic search, the answer to his question from earlier becoming apparent.

He jerked his gaze up to Amaimon's, wanting to clarify the suspicion anyway. "I was gonna ask you, he seemed so nice, but I kept feeling like there was something really dangerous about him and I couldn't relax the whole time we were there. What's up with him?"

Amaimon nodded, moving back over to wait by Mephisto. "He's like his insects, he can't resist stinging his venom into the unsuspecting, it's in his nature. Your instincts were right to be cautious around him."

Rin was checking through the fur on the end of his tail and wincing at the pain the tugs at the knots there sent through him when Amaimon crossed his arms, staring at him in confusion.

"Why aren't you using your flames to burn the insects away?"

"Er," Rin blushed, hands leaving his tail as it wagged in embarrassment behind him- and was Amaimon tracking it with his eyes? He looked like he wanted to pounce on it. Maybe he was like a cat and movement attracted him?

Rin tucked his tail closer to his leg, forcing it still to avoid it getting attacked or whatever was making Amaimon pay so much attention to it. "Sorry, I panicked."

He flared his fire and burned whatever insects were there away, moving to pull his clothes back on and pretend he hadn't just acted like Shima about some bugs in front of the ancient demon king his entire quest depended on.

One last burst of flames took care of whatever insects might have been hiding in his clothes and Rin tugged his shirt down, looking to Amaimon to tell him he was ready to go.

Only to see Amaimon still focused on his tail. "Uh, is there something wrong with my tail? Are there still bugs there? I thought I got them all."

That snapped Amaimon out of whatever daze he was in, the demon shaking his head and glaring at Rin, though he had no idea what for.

"Put your tail away, it's embarrassing to see it out like that," Amaimon ordered, brows scrunching as if he Rin had done something he couldn't understand again.

Embarrassing? Rin glanced down at where his tail flicked once against the grass by his feet. "I've always kept it out like this and Mephisto never said anything, just that it was a demon's weakness or whatever."

The glare Amaimon shot at Mephisto was withering and Rin was glad it wasn't turned on him, though he still didn't know why it was a big deal to let his tail out, especially when there weren't humans around to see it like when he was in class.

"Once again, he's left me to clean up his mess because he was too busy having a laugh," Amaimon grumbled at the unresponsive form, indignant

"Does this have something to do with demon etiquette?" Rin hesitated but asked anyway, figuring it might be one of those things he'd need to know if he was going to be going to Gehenna. "Mephisto told me some stuff about that but then he let you out to fight me and, I mean, I know about the heart thing and protecting mine now, but not much else."

Amaimon actually pinched the bridge of his nose between his claws, eyes closing at Rin's question. "Yes, and it's a wonder he taught you at least that much."

"So, why can't I keep my tail out?" Rin prodded, though it was nice to get some real answers and not the teasing half-answers he usually got out of Mephisto.

That got a flash of gold directed his way, Amaimon stilling where he'd been rubbing at his face in irritation. A quick calculation seemed to be going on behind those eyes and Rin wondered what that meant for him.

Especially when Amaimon began to smile, a slow widening of his lips to reveal fangs in a sly look as he left Mephisto's side to make his way towards Rin.

"There's one reason not to keep you tail out in the open," he said, voice hinting at something Rin couldn't guess at, though it reminded him of the tone Mephisto liked to use when talking to him and made Rin shift in nervousness.

"That's the one I think I made clear when I used it against you in the forest." Amaimon grinned down at him when he came to a stop a foot away.

"Yeah, Mephisto made that pretty clear too," Rin muttered, shooting his own glare at Mephisto for the remembered way he'd yanked on his tail in the pocket dimension of Gehenna he'd transferred Rin's mind to when he'd revealed his true name and nature.

"The other reason is one I'm surprised you haven't discovered for yourself yet."

And he squeaked as Amaimon reached down to capture his tail in his hand, dragging along it in a firm movement that sent a toe-curling wave of sensation straight through the length of it and into Rin's stomach.

"What the _fu_-uh~" Rin moaned and dropped his head onto Amaimon's chest, eyes glazing and hips jolting forward at the heat coiling in him until he realized what, exactly was happening and yelped, jerking away from the demon feeling him up.

He forgot Amaimon's hand was still attached to his tail and shrieked at the pain when he fell and the hold turned excruciating before Amaimon released it, letting him drop the rest of the way.

"Holy shi- what the _fuck_\- oh my god! What was that?" Rin gasped out, tears pricking at his eyes as the pain faded away and he could try to figure out what the hell that had just been.

"That was the other reason to keep your tail to yourself, unless you'd like to leave it out?" Amaimon leered at him, clawed fingers pressing against each other as if he was still running them over the fur of Rin's tail.

A flush overtook Rin as his mind short-circuited and he gaped up at Amaimon, body limp in shock while he processed the last five-seconds.

He was never so thankful for the pain his tail getting yanked on caused him or he would be in an absolutely mortifying situation.

"I'm surprised he didn't tell you," Amaimon hummed, dropping the teasing expression he'd been wearing to cock his head at Mephisto, "though I'm even more surprised it took you this long to figure it out."

Rin came back online, growling up at the demon and twitching his fingers, finding claws had grown there in his anger. "Hey! You couldn't have just told me? What kinda person just grabs someone like that?"

"But I'm not a person." Amaimon blinked down at him, though another grin appeared on his face soon after. "And if pain didn't teach you to keep you tail to yourself, I thought pleasure might."

"Dammit, keep your claws to yourself!" Rin snarled, his tail thumping against the ground without his say. He reddened when he saw Amaimon watching it with smirking eyes. "I'm putting it away, stop staring!"

Amaimon raised his hands in mock-surrender and Rin sent a long glare at him while he hid his tail under his shirt. It would be aching by the end of the day from being wound up like that, but he'd be damned if he gave Amaimon or any other demon an excuse to grab it again.

"Can we go now?" Rin said, voice pointed as he stood and crossed his arms, fighting the blush on his face until he could look Amaimon in the eyes without it coming back.

"Hmm, I suppose we can, since you don't seem like you're in the mood to play with me," Amaimon teased, ignoring the affronted squawk Rin let out to pick Mephisto back up into his arms.

"So," Rin said, calmer now when it looked like Amaimon had dropped the topic, "how do we find the next guy?"

"Astaroth," Amaimon corrected, rolling his eyes and missing the way the name once again made something like anger pinch at Rin's expression, though he covered it in the next moment.

"And we're going to follow the coal tars."

"Coal tars…?"

Rin followed as Amaimon walked away instead of teleporting them, stuck watching the way Mephisto's hair swayed with every step while Amaimon explained who Astaroth was and why the coal tars would lead them to him.

* * *

The voices had left him and, while he'd hated that they'd interrupted his peace when they'd first arrived, he found he wanted them back now that they were gone.

Peace, he found, didn't suit him.

Whoever he was, he was sure of that.

But silence persisted and he cursed that he was so tired, or he would be trying to make his own chaos.

Instead, he was stuck, floating in the gray prison he'd found himself in.

Another ripple, and he held his breath to see what would reach him now.

"It's a wonder he taught you that much."

"So, why can't I keep my tail out?"

Oh? He felt his lips twitch up at the silly question, a gentleman always kept his tail tucked in tight. Didn't the voice know that?

"What the _fu_-uh~"

By the moan, he would say the foolish voice had just learned one of the reasons not to leave his tail out.

And by the following shriek of pain, he'd say he just learned the second reason.

"That was the other reason to keep your tail to yourself, unless you'd like to leave it out?"

He liked this first voice, he decided. That response was almost exactly what he would have liked to tell the second voice.

A giggle tried to bubble past his lips, and he realized something.

He felt…

…Amused.

But the voices were fading again, everything becoming muffled, and he wanted to _scream_ his frustration, though even the sharp breath that came from his lungs was almost too much effort

He was once again, trapped in the gray world around him, in the lukewarm waters that he barely felt against his skin and the formless sky that made his vision seem hazy and undefined.

The frustration bit at his bones until the energy it took to feel left him numb and weary so that even that brief respite was gone.

Without those voices, he thought he might go mad in this place.

* * *

A/N Guys it's really hard to write these three at ground zero of their relationship again, like what do you mean they haven't even kissed yet? D:


	3. We're Going to Hell (In a Handbasket)

Summary: Amaimon and Rin follow the coal tars like a trail of bread-crumbs… Wait, wrong fairytale. Also, that explosion you just heard? That was Rin combusting as he plays the "connect the name to the demon" game. When did Amaimon become the responsible one again?

A/N So I've got that post update high going for me right now and I figured I'd get while the going was good to start cranking out chapters for BRS while I wait for the new manga chapter coming up for aoex to see if it gives me anything substantial to go off of for Incandescence (I really should have picked an easier fic title to type out, like, how are u supposed to shorten it like BRS?) Asking for a friend bc I keep spelling my own title wrong and then having to correct it (:

Also, chapter 110 was lovely (that cover tho, like, Shiemi looked so cool!) but, once again, not what I needed XD What I DO need is to see my gremlin king again. Where's the green boy, Kato? Produce him!

* * *

Amaimon walked ahead of him in silence after he'd explained why the coal tars would lead to Astaroth.

Apparently, as kin of Astaroth, the coal tars were all connected to him in some way that Rin couldn't sense at all but which Amaimon assured him was obvious to demonic senses, though the unsaid but clearly felt 'duh' at the end of his explanation was definitely unnecessary.

They still needed to take the slower route so Amaimon could get a better lock on which of the little demons were more connected since it meant they had been closer to Astaroth recently- or something like that, Rin hadn't really understood.

Once Amaimon got a general vicinity, they'd teleport there and begin the search again until the location was narrowed down and they found their target. Until then, they were following said coal tars to more of their brethren drifting in the air in mindless patterns.

Watching Mephisto's hair sway with Amaimon's movements was turning into an almost hypnotic effect with nothing else to claim Rin's attention.

He tripped over another root in the ground and decided he'd had enough.

"Uh I can carry Mephisto too, if you want," Rin hedged.

Amaimon didn't slow his pace- in fact, he seemed incapable of it, having been going at the same steady speed the whole time.

He did look back at Rin, quirking a brow at the request like Rin had said something weird again.

"No."

Rin blinked, almost feeling insulted that Amaimon had denied him so simply and without any kind of explanation forthcoming, returning to ignoring Rin.

Okay, Rin narrowed his eyes. He was not going to be doing this whole thing in silence and Amaimon could bite him if that pissed him off.

"Why?"

The question got him a subtle tensing of Amaimon's shoulders, though Rin couldn't tell if it was because Amaimon was irritated at it or just Rin breaking the silence again. Or even just having to answer another one of Rin's questions in general, though he'd seemed fine with answering them before, if a little sarcastic when he answered.

At the very least Amaimon didn't get angry about them like Bon sometimes did when Rin asked too many things he considered to be obvious.

So it was something else, Rin determined, only to realize Amaimon hadn't spoken.

"Amaimon?" Rin prodded, hesitant but curious about why he had yet to responded.

"No."

Rin felt his eye twitch at the stubborn refusal and was about to open his mouth to say something about it- it wasn't that he wanted to lug Mephisto around like a sack of potatoes, dammit, but it was a matter of principle now!

Amaimon stopped, flicking a clawed finger at one of the floating coal tars near his face and sending it tumbling away through the air before righting itself and carrying on its aimless course.

"I've narrowed it down."

And he raised his fingers to snap before Rin could protest him dodging the question again.

They left the peaceful forest behind.

And entered a concrete hell.

The sounds reached him first, rushing traffic and crowds of people bombarding his senses, unbearably loud after the relative silence they'd just come from. Smells followed close behind, millions of humans and the fumes from passing cars assaulting his nose until Rin had to throw a hand over his mouth to hold back the instinctive gag he wanted to let out.

Once again, besides a wrinkle of his nose, Amaimon seemed unaffected, though he also didn't look like he enjoyed being around the hordes of people either, if his already blank expression turning stony was any indication.

But Rin was able to adjust to the city after the shock wore off, lowering his hand and taking a closer look to see if he could recognize where he was.

Chaos met his eyes and he blinked once.

Yeah, there was no way he was figuring this one out. Rin inched nearer to Amaimon, who'd been analyzing the new swarms of coal tars, so much more prevalent in the city.

He'd thought Kyoto and even the Academy town had been large, but what he was seeing made them look like quaint villages by comparison.

And, of course, after listening to the voices around him, Rin couldn't understand a word being said. If he got lost here, he'd be hard pressed to find Amaimon again, or even his way around.

"He's here."

Rin jerked his gaze up, startled at the sudden words, "really? That was fast. Uh, where are we?"

Amaimon paused where he'd been about to snap his fingers again, brows scrunching in thought, "I don't know what the humans are calling it nowadays, or what it would be called in your language."

"Oh, right," Rin said. He kept forgetting just how old the demon kings were, that they'd been around for what seemed like most of human history, despite Amaimon looking like he was somewhere in his early twenties.

Mind thoroughly boggled at how truly ancient Amaimon was- and the concept that Rin might one day reach that age, was way too much to think about right then. So, Rin happily put it out of his head and nodded to show he was satisfied with Amaimon's answer.

It was oddly polite of the demon to even wait for him before teleporting them, Rin had a chance to think, before the snap came and he was blinking his eyes open to a new area.

The same rough buildings and indecipherable language, this time expressed as graffiti fading on the bricks, met him, but there were less people around, the noise of their conversations muffled by the labyrinth of alleys they'd appeared in. He could just hear the hum of human activity but, as they made their way further into the murk, Rin lost even that.

Mysterious stains in the grit of the alley had Rin covering another wince and doing his best to avoid stepping in anything he'd have to smell until it washed off his shoes later.

But there was another scent surrounding him that took his attention away and had him sniffing the air to chase it while he tried to place where he could have smelled it before, coming up blank.

In his distraction he didn't notice they'd reached the end, though at least this time he didn't walk straight into Amaimon again, twisting out of the way at the last moment to stumble to a halt at his side instead.

A door, mottled paint flaking to reveal layers of equally worn paint beneath, greeted Rin.

"Er, he's in here?" Rin asked, already knowing the answer but hoping he was wrong.

"Tch, I don't know how he stands it either, he always chooses these places," Amaimon said, an admission Rin hadn't actually expected from him but made him feel better for the solidarity it provided. He wasn't the only one uncomfortable, though, as Amaimon was already pushing open the door without hesitation, he definitely covered it better.

It wasn't as bad once they entered the building. But that wasn't saying much, Rin grimaced. The lights weren't flickering, at least, even if they were the type of fluorescent that burned your eyes if you looked too long, and the stench of the city was covered by stale air.

That strange smell was still there, Rin felt his hackles raise.

He jumped as a coal tar drifted past him while he'd been distracted again. In fact, now that he was looking, more of the little demons revealed themselves, filling the claustrophobic corridor until Rin had to brush them aside or have them bumble straight into his face in their nearly aimless journey down side paths he and Amaimon avoided.

Amaimon narrowed his eyes as them, his height not helping matters when it came to keeping out of their path. But he just stalked forwards, head bowed to let the coal tars bounce off his hair and not into his eyes.

Rin followed behind him, not above taking advantage of the clear path he made through the thickening swarm.

Actually, that turned out to only be a temporary solution as the air filled with too many to count and Rin let out an irritated growl, "seriously? What does he need all these guys for anyway?"

Amaimon shook his head and Rin caught a glimpse of gold eyes narrowed in a peeved glare at another coal tar that left a circle of soot on his cheek when it hit him, "it's better than his mushrooms."

"Mushrooms?" Rin muttered, trying to figure out why that seemed familiar too. And why it made his claws want to extend.

He tried to think harder about the strange physical reactions that kept piling up without an apparent source that he could remember-

-Then sneezed as a coal tar smacked right into his nose, getting soot inside. Blue flames burst out and incinerated the poor thing in a squeal of its tiny voice and hissing fire.

Noise came from Amaimon while Rin recovered from the surprise attack, realizing it was laughter a moment later and scowling, "hey! I didn't mean to, it just got in my nose."

Amaimon shot a smirk back at him, snickering, "you should see your face right now."

"Yeah, well," his eyes darted to the similar soot-stain on Amaimon's cheek, the shape distorted by his grin, "you too."

Somehow that just made Amaimon smile wider and Rin sensed things were only going to devolve if he let it continue, where, exactly, he wasn't sure. Though he was sure he didn't want to find out.

"Isn't, uh, Astaroth gonna be angry I just killed one of his guys?" He pointed out in an effort to get Amaimon onto a new topic.

Another coal tar hit Rin's forehead and he batted it away with a swipe of his claws while delight entered Amaimon's gold eyes at the frustrated move.

Rin glared at him, Amaimon having turned to walk backwards through the swarm so they looked like a dark billowing cloud expanding around his form.

A thought occurred to Rin then as Amaimon opened his mouth to respond, "wait, why aren't we getting a gift for him too?"

It worked, distracting him from further teasing. Amaimon waved a hand at the question and turned around to continue, "too many gifts will spoil him, I already got him one recently."

They rounded a corner in the hallway that just kept going, heading towards a slightly ajar door at the end of it that Rin hoped was the location so he could escape the damn coal tars.

And they were through the door.

Rin had a moment to enjoy the wide-open warehouse space that allowed him to breathe without risk of inhaling a coal tar before Amaimon stepped forwards to greet Astaroth.

"Astaroth."

"Amaimon? is this a personal matter or do you have news for Father?"

That voice.

The scent Rin recognized. He looked up.

"_You_."

Rin saw red.

"My… Prince? Amaimon, what. Did. You. Do."

The question made Amaimon narrow his eyes, but Rin barely comprehended the sudden wary attention he was being paid.

Because there in front of him was Reiji Shiratori, somehow possessed again, and Rin knew which king Astaroth was and why he was familiar.

"Rin," Amaimon spoke up, eyebrows scrunched in consternation as he stepped forward, clawed fingers twitching as if he was unsure, caught off guard.

Rin snarled, flames bursting from his mouth. His breath huffed out between extended fangs, the action both open threat and to take in the scent of his target. He vaguely registered that his ears must have lengthened and eyes begun to warp. He couldn't control it even if he'd wanted to.

Amaimon stopped in his tracks, but his face hardened, a warning Rin didn't pay any attention.

"Why is he here, Amaimon?" Astaroth made the mistake of speaking.

Everything happened in an instant.

Rin roared his rage, tearing forwards and erupting into flame, his entire intent and focus on reaching the bastard that had led to Shiro's- to his _father's_ death.

He'd kill him- he'd _kill_ him!

Only to gag as he was grabbed by the throat and thrown into a wall, thick steel siding screeching as it warped and twisted into the shape of his body from the devastating impact.

Amaimon's fangs were around his throat halting his shout and the coughed out growls he'd been releasing at having his vengeance interrupted.

He couldn't move, flames vanishing to leave him in a cold sweat as he felt the needle-point tips press in further, dangerous growl vibrating through them from deep in Amaimon's chest.

Claws rested at Rin's middle, ready to gut him if he showed signs of moving in any way that looked like a continued attack.

And he'd dropped Mephisto, Rin realized, eyes prickling with tears in an automatic fear reaction.

A whimper escaped his mouth and he slumped in the hold, giving into the instincts screaming at him to submit to the demon at his jugular.

Seeing he was done, Amaimon gave one more squeeze to his neck before pulling his claws back from Rin's stomach.

Then Rin was squeaking because a long tongue laved against his throat along the path between fangs as they receded to their normal length and disengaged.

"Amaimon!" Rin gasped out, dropping from the dent he'd made in the wall and rubbing the wet trail before it had a chance to cool on his flushed skin, "What-"

"Why did you attack Astaroth." Amaimon said, cutting him off before he could yell at him for the massive boundary over-stepping he'd just undergone.

But the question reminded Rin how he'd ended up in the situation in the first place and he couldn't help the curl of his lip over a fang, gaze darting to Astaroth's still form, the demon king having taken to watching them in silence as he let Amaimon handle Rin.

Amaimon stepped in front of Rin, blocking his view of Astaroth and releasing his own warning growl until Rin backed down, not wanting a fight.

Rin glanced at Mephisto and he wondered which of the demon kings knew how everything had begun, since Amaimon clearly didn't.

"He's the one who started _everything_," Rin said voice almost a hiss, bringing his gaze back to meet Amaimon's, unrepentant, "he attacked my home and my dad's dead now because he tried to protect me!"

"Tch. That damn interfering exorcist," Astaroth scoffed and Rin's heart stopped in his chest at the sheer _god_ _damn_ _nerve_, eyes widening and body freezing as fury swept through in a blinding red wave-

-Only to crest as Amaimon snarled behind him, "Astaroth. _Stop_."

Amaimon's breath left him in an exasperated huff when Astaroth grumbled, crossing his arms but standing down anyway so he could turn back to Rin.

"Astaroth follows our Father and is on Lucifer's side," he began when he knew he had Rin's full attention, "your father would have known that, as he would have known the risks involved in taking care of the son of Satan in the first place- or dealing with Samael at all."

The way Amaimon said it, laying things out with such cold logic, it hurt. Rin dropped his gaze, chest aching as the entire night came back to him in nightmarish flashes of vivid color while he stood in the cold of the metal warehouse.

"It was an inevitable conflict that he accepted the moment he took charge over you," Amaimon continued and, Rin was startled to realize, the calm certainty he said it with somehow allowed Rin to breathe deeper and _not_ feel like tearing Astaroth's throat out with his claws when he caught his scent again.

"I know," Rin answered when it looked like Amaimon was waiting for a response, voice coming out bitter around grit teeth.

"I know," he repeated when Amaimon still looked unconvinced, "he was just the first guy who came, and my dad already took care of him before- before…" Rin trailed off, taking a shuddering breath again to force himself the rest of the way calm.

"Good," Amaimon nodded, un-tensing from the alert stance he'd been in, though he still didn't drop it completely. They still had to deal with Astaroth.

They returned to where Amaimon had left Mephisto, and Rin didn't resist the urge to correct the uncomfortable way he'd fallen this time, bending to pull the arm lodged under his body and his legs from their twisted position with careful movements.

The slow process allowed him to steel his nerves further until, brushing the mussed purple bangs from where they'd caught between Mephisto's slightly parted lips, Rin felt ready to face Astaroth without breathing fire.

He stood, coming to Amaimon's side where the two demons had been waiting to get down to the real reason they were here.

"Samael is cursed, it's the King Killer," Amaimon said without preamble, and Rin settled back to let him talk, not quite trusting himself to speak yet.

The name of the curse prompted a surprised look from Astaroth, his arms tightening in their crossed hold.

"He's dead already, then, so why did you involve our Prince?" Astaroth said, matter-of-fact and with the same care the rest of the kings had when finding out Mephisto was dying. Rin shouldn't have been surprised but it hit him with the same disbelief at their callousness as it had when the humans had displayed their own casual cruelty.

Was he the only normal person who cared whether someone lived or died anymore? Rin almost wished Shiemi was there because she was always the only other person who backed him up on these sorts of things. But he would never involve her, or any of his human friends, actually, in something he'd brought on himself, something so dangerous.

They'd probably even protest not being able to help him, Rin suspected, heart hurting because he knew this was something they'd never be able to help him with. This was something only a demon could do.

"He involved himself," Amaimon said, bringing Rin's reluctant focus back, "I found them fleeing from Samael's exorcists. We've been to see Beelzebub already for information about the curse. He directed us to you next."

Each bit of revealed information was stated without wordplay or attempts to cover it up, very different from the way Mephisto liked to tease people with promised knowledge and hints to his true motives.

Rin wondered how much they all spoke amongst themselves, never having considered that Mephisto might be in communication with the other kings, since Amaimon seemed to spend more of his time away from them than together.

"So you've chosen a side, Amaimon." Rin just contained the jolt those words from Astaroth sent through his body. What did he mean, had Amaimon chosen a side?

"No."

The short response had Rin hiding a wince, sensing the fault line Astaroth had just stepped on as the same one Beelzebub had skirted around in his encounter too.

"Yet you won't take our prince to Father and you protect Samael, you have chosen a side," Astaroth continued digging, not satisfied with Amaimon's negative.

"I. Have. Not," Amaimon said through clenched teeth, his stance firmly rooted to the ground while Rin considered preparing himself to grab Mephisto and run if the two started fighting.

"Gehenna won't see it that way, _Father_ won't see it that way," Astaroth kept at it, as if reminding Amaimon where the line in the sand was.

"I know," Amaimon said instead of explaining himself, gold eyes flashing in warning, saying without words that Astaroth should make up his mind whether he would be helping them or not.

Astaroth watched him with considering eyes and Rin had no idea what his next move would be.

Would they be getting his help and the information he had about the curse, or…

"Then I'll tell you what I know from that time," Astaroth conceded, closing his eyes and letting the challenge go out of him, the expression on Reiji's face so out of place Rin was almost able to keep himself from thinking about the arrogant bully he'd dealt with for so much of his childhood.

It seemed so long ago that picking fights with schoolyard bullies had been his greatest obstacle, that and schoolwork in general, though he'd still had to deal with that at the Academy.

He wasn't sure if he could go back to that simple life, now.

"You'll be facing the consequences of your actions soon, but I'll give you that much," Astaroth said, his statement a last caution to change course. Which, like hell he'd be listening to whatever Astaroth said, Rin determined, glad to see Amaimon was just as steadfast in his decision.

"I was there, that last week of Abduxuel's existence, as I'm sure Beelzebub told you already," at Amaimon's confirming nod, Astaroth continued, "that overly-excited fool…"

That hadn't sounded like a compliment, Rin thought, watching how Amaimon twitched at the description of Abduxuel, though he didn't say anything, letting Astaroth finish.

Astaroth scoffed again, staring into the corner of the warehouse at the coal tars still floating around them, "he was a shell of himself at that point, more dead than alive- well, you've felt the pain of degradation to that degree, Amaimon, you're familiar with the experience."

The rot, he must mean, Rin hadn't really seen how bad it could get, but he remembered smelling it on Lucifer and seeing the patches of gray flesh not hidden by his uniform, trying to imagine it covering their whole body, as Astaroth seemed to imply.

It was a horrifying concept and Rin tried to focus on something else other than the memory of decay in the air.

"Samael wouldn't let anyone in the room with him besides Lucifer at that point, not that we would have wanted to be, with how out of control he was."

Astaroth chewed at his lips, scowling, a much more familiar expression on Reiji's face, "and of course, not that any of that matters to you, since you decided to fuck off around Assiah back then."

Amaimon growled, teeth clacking together in sharp irritation, "that's not what I need to know, Astaroth, is there a cure to the curse."

"Typical, Amaimon," Astaroth snorted, "but yes, there is something you wouldn't know that might be useful."

"Well?" Came the impatient prompt.

"Abduxuel wasn't the first of us to be afflicted by this curse."

Rin sucked in a breath, that was it. That was the information they needed. The chances that another had been cursed and even survived going up even further.

But Amaimon didn't react to that information and Rin wondered if he'd already thought of that possibility.

"But only Lucifer knows who it was," Astaroth added, crushing the hope that had been budding, sending them back to square one because the answers still all seemed to point to Lucifer and, as Rin had been repeatedly told, they couldn't go to him without signing his death warrant.

"Could it have been Azazel?" Amaimon asked, focus inward as he tapped a claw to his bottom lip, scratching lightly until it bled and he blinked back into awareness, "he was always strange, he could have been afflicted."

"Yes, Azazel is a weird one," Astaroth agreed, and Rin wondered what could have been so odd about who he was presuming was another of the kings that could have someone like Amaimon calling him strange. "But I don't think so, at least, he never indicated that he might have, and he seemed just as… bothered by Abduxuel's state as the rest of us were."

"So, what would you suggest, then," Amaimon brought them away from the topic of Azazel's weirdness, waving a hand to brush it aside.

Astaroth shifted, uncrossing his arms to place his hands on his hips, the move so reminiscent of Reiji that Rin felt another pang of guilt, even though he'd been such a bastard of a human.

What had the human Amaimon inhabited been like? Was he still in there, like Izumo's mom had been, in the end? It wasn't a pretty thought and Rin buried it for another time.

"Iblis," Astaroth finally said, dropping his arms, though Rin had no idea what or who an Iblis was, "she is closer to Lucifer, for a given sense of the word, though not as close as Egyn, and he may have told her what he didn't tell me "

"That's too close," Amaimon said at the mention of whoever Egyn was, "Egyn stays at Lucifer's side, we can't approach them."

At that, Astaroth smirked, "and there's the fact that you never much liked them, if I recall."

Amaimon glared and the reaction had Rin blinking. What kind of demon Egyn could be that Amaimon wouldn't get along with them? He seemed so laid back all the time, what did it take to make him dislike someone enough to go out of his way to avoid them.

He'd probably be waiting for a while longer to learn about that relationship, Rin figured, knowing Amaimon wouldn't bring it up on his own and might be annoyed if Rin did.

Although, Rin might get Amaimon to tell him about Egyn and Iblis at the same time if he phrased the question the way he had about Beelzebub and Astaroth. As something to know about demon politics and how they fit into the scheme of things. That way Amaimon wouldn't think it was a personal question and was just another thing to educate Rin on so they'd have a better chance of surviving this!

Despite himself, Rin found he had to fight to keep a smile from his face, the thought of, not manipulating, but learning more about Amaimon in such a clever way filling him with a giddiness he couldn't quite explain the source of.

A sigh came from Amaimon and Rin realized they were done.

"Thank you, Astaroth," Amaimon said without inflection, more formality than anything as he walked to Rin's side to bring Mephisto back over his shoulder.

"Your time will run out faster than you think, Amaimon," Astaroth warned, the gravity of it making Amaimon still, body hunched and face shadowed by his choppy green hair from Rin's sight.

"I know, Astaroth."

And Amaimon rose the rest of the way, flicking his hand at the door to indicate Rin follow as he stalked past.

Well, Rin wouldn't be thinking twice about that, anything to get out of the uncomfortable presence and away from the scent of rot and coal dust filling the room.

And away from Astaroth- although, Rin stopped, hands fisting as he turned to Astaroth.

"Before we go," Rin stared into those familiar red eyes, now completely changed from the boy he once knew, "how did you posses Reiji again. My old man said he sealed him against possession."

Astaroth leveled a steady gaze back at him from slit-pupils, "those are not impossible to overcome, my Prince, provided you have another demon or exorcist who can remove it from the body."

Rin nodded, accepting that and trying not to let the hate rise in his gut again for the answer he had suspected, "thanks."

And left with Amaimon without a backwards glance.

* * *

The voices had left with his awareness an indeterminate time ago and hadn't returned with his waking- if what he experienced could be considered waking at all.

If he could have sobbed, he would have.

Had he ever cried before? The act seemed unfamiliar to his mind as well as his body.

But he was sure he wanted to now. He wanted to be able to do _anything_ now.

A sharp exhale left his mouth, chest squeezing with the effort as his vision blurred in exhaustion and agony.

The pool of water that made up his entire world rippled.

Another gasp, this time one that would be a sob of relief were he capable of it.

They were _back_. Please let them be _back_.

"He's the one who started _everything_," the second voice shouted, raw anger and emotion sending his pulse skipping a beat in his chest as he wondered who 'he' was and what he'd started.

He latched onto every word, savoring them like they would be his last and greedy- desperate, for more.

"He attacked my home and my dad's dead now because he tried to protect me!"

Was it his imagination or was the voice louder, more real than it had been when he'd heard it last?

And what did that mean if it was?

"Tch. That damn interfering exorcist," a familiar voice, a third one that he couldn't place a name to.

But the word exorcist made another twinge of familiarity go through his heart.

"-. _Stop_."

The first voice again, struggling to calm the second and third voices down, he could hear.

"- follows our Father and is on -'s side." There were names missing, he could hear where they would be. _Why_? Why were they missing? Who were they and _why was this happening to him_?

"Your father would have known that, as he would have known the risks involved in taking care of the son of - in the first place."

The urge to scream his frustration was back again.

"It was an inevitable conflict that he accepted the moment he took charge over you," the first voice continued, not letting go of the cool logic that he admired the more he heard it.

Emotions were ugly little things that could be manipulated so easily, but…

…But they were all he had in this cruel place he'd found himself in.

"I know," the second voice answered, a bitterness that seemed to reflect the strange melancholy filling him at the topic of their conversation.

There was something about this exorcist- this father the voices spoke of, that had dulled tendrils of melancholy- or possibly regret, coiling through his chest that he couldn't explain any more than he could explain why everything they said made him feel as if he should be intimately aware of who the exorcist was and the part he played.

"I know," the second voice repeated, and he could hear the fight go out of him.

"He was just the first guy who came, and my dad already took care of him before- before…" the voice trailed off, a final concession to the wisdom of the first voice.

"Good…"

He was fading again, teeth closing together, though he didn't have the strength to clench them in the frustration he felt but lacked the energy to express.

But he'd lasted longer this time, heard _more_.

Was he getting stronger? Could he escape this place on his own, given enough time and effort?

The thought gave him hope that followed him down in a tangled mix between frustration and still lingering melancholy.

* * *

The last door shut behind them and they were back in the outside world between the walls of the alley.

"We don't have to worry about him like Beelzebub?" Rin asked when he thought they were far enough away and he noticed Amaimon hadn't teleported them like he had before.

Amaimon shook his head, focus on something else, probably the politics that Rin was beginning to see played a large part in every interaction between the demon kings. It was… kinda exhausting, and Rin realized why Amaimon seemed to avoid the others whenever he could now.

Well, with the exception of Mephisto. Rin glanced at him, watching the way his face looked slackened in sleep. Did it have less color in it than this morning? He couldn't be sure, the already dim surroundings in the shadow of the alley muting his features.

"Astaroth is straightforward in his allegiances," Amaimon said, startling Rin again as he leant back against the alley wall with the shoulder opposite the one he carried Mephisto on.

"So that's good?" Rin needled, trying his best to understand the personal versus political relationships between the kings.

"He'll do as he said he would," Amaimon said, shrugging, though he didn't look especially happy about that and Rin wanted to pull his hair out because he still didn't know if that was good for them or not. "He'll report this to Lucifer."

Rin sighed, giving into the urge to scratch at his arms before forcing himself to stop the frustrated habit, "Lucifer. Who you and Beelzebub said we _shouldn't_ go to because he might take me straight to Satan?"

He got a slow blink from Amaimon and a nod in confirmation, though it seemed to be humoring him and not because he was being particularly helpful.

"I don't get it." Was he whining? Yes. Yes, he was. By the twitch of Amaimon's lips upwards Rin could tell he heard it and was definitely laughing at him inside. Bastard.

Rin scowled, crossing his arms and raising a brow, "well, what now?"

That brought out the smirk Rin had known Amaimon was hiding.

"Now, we go to Gehenna. We have no other choice, as you heard from Astaroth, Iblis, King of Fire, is our next target."

Gehenna. Rin had known it was coming down to that place- that world of demons, ever since it had been brought up by Amaimon.

What would a world like that even be like? Somehow, after seeing the demon kings and even minor familiars like Kuro, Rin had a hard time believing it was anything like the religious books he'd been forced to go through at the church as a child.

He'd be finding out soon, whether he was ready or not.

His gaze wandered the alley until, with nothing but the dirty brick to take his attention, he focused on the contemplative figure of Amaimon- and Mephisto.

"His suit's covered in soot still," Rin finally said after shaking himself from his thoughts, "he'd be really pissed it was dirty, he was always telling me to clean up or dress nicer, you know? And then he'd do that snapping thing you guys do and fix my hair and clothes anyway."

Amaimon stared at him with those unblinking eyes again, as if he'd seen something that surprised him or had made him re-evaluate what he'd known. Like a puzzle he'd found new pieces for- or had revealed itself to be of an entirely new picture than the one he'd been building.

Rin shuffled at the intense stare, though he kept his gaze steady because he refused to show weakness. It was more important than ever to keep himself true to his human ways, even if he would have to start learning what it meant to be a demon.

"Living as a human must be incredibly," Amaimon searched for the word while Rin startled at the sudden break in their staring contest, "tedious."

He snapped his fingers and Mephisto's suit was back to its spotless white. For some reason that made Rin feel better about what he was about to do. About going to Gehenna.

"Okay," Rin breathed, it was okay, now, right? He began to walk a few steps, turning to walk the other way when he realized his steps were purposeless.

"There's something else," Amaimon said, abrupt and halting Rin from his pacing.

"What?" Rin asked, wary as something off in Amaimon's usually laid-back tone sent warning bells ringing in his head.

"When you go to Gehenna, the flame that's trapped in your sword will come back in full to your body if it's unsheathed. You'll more than likely die if that happens. You can't draw it."

Amaimon could have punched him into a wall again and it would have had less impact than those words did.

He couldn't breathe, staring into cool gold eyes as he tried desperately to process the thought of being even more defenseless than he already was.

"What?" He managed to ask, hoping for clarification of any kind.

"The sword- it's a gateway to Gehenna where the majority of your flames, your demonic heart, reside," Amaimon tilted his head, "did Samael really not tell you any of this?"

Rin flushed, for some reason feeling shame at not knowing something he shouldn't have been expected to know in the first place, all because it was a demon thing, "no, I don't think he told me much of anything, now."

Amaimon furrowed his brows, shooting a look at Mephisto. It somehow carried more than the simple irritation he'd held the first time Rin had told him how much of his heritage Mephisto had kept in the dark.

"I need to call Yukio," Rin said, the words coming to him from numbed lips while his hands fumbled the burner phone he'd been given just that morning, already feeling like it had been longer- a different world than the one he was in now.

That got another tilt of Amaimon's head at him, though he was only aware of the curious gaze on the periphery of his mind, typing in his twin's number and hoping he picked up.

It rang.

And rang.

And rang.

The message tone played and Rin took a shuddering breath, leaning back against the wall to hold himself up as he tried to think of what he could possibly say.

"Yukio," he started with no other ideas forthcoming, "I'm going to Gehenna, Yukio. We have to track down more information and there's no one left on Assiah to get it from so…"

"…So I-" Rin scratched the claws of his hand not holding the phone into the wall behind him, the sensation of gouging brick helping him gather himself.

He knew what he had to say. The only thing that really mattered, in the end.

"Yukio, tell Shiemi and Shura- and Bon, Konekomaru and even Shima- and everyone from home, and Kuro," Rin let out a self-deprecating laugh, realizing he'd made more friends than he'd thought. And that he'd possibly be leaving them behind forever.

He turned his eyes down, hand clenching on the phone before he forced a shivered exhale out and continued, "tell them I'm-"

The phone beeped again, message ending and cutting him off, "-sorry."

Rin stared at the screen for a few moments longer, hoping Yukio got his message and that it was enough. He pocketed the phone and nodded to a, once more, shockingly patient Amaimon.

He was ready.

But Amaimon didn't just take them straight to Gehenna, how ever that worked, anyway.

Instead he pushed off from the wall to stride down the alley, forcing Rin to follow behind him as confusion about their destination bubbled in his mind.

"Why are you sorry."

The words shocked Rin and he stumbled, staring up at Amaimon where the demon continued to walk as if his question hadn't thrown Rin for the biggest loop.

"What?"

Amaimon stopped and sent him a narrowed eyed glance before clarifying, "just now, to your twin, why were you sorry when you already explained to him why you're doing this earlier, and he's likely already told those others you mentioned about it, too."

That, Rin couldn't take his wide-eyed gaze off Amaimon, he didn't know what to do with that question.

The look on Amaimon's face started to turn irate and Rin quickly remembered he didn't like being made fun of or ignored, opening his mouth to say the first thing he could think of.

"Because I'm leaving them and I might never see them again- and they might never see me again," Rin said, realizing the absurdity of explaining something so simple yet, now that he'd thought about it, so utterly human to the demon king of earth, stunned that he was even curious about it in the first place.

"It's so they have something from me, even after I'm gone and that they know I thought about them, and I'm thinking about them, and I haven't forgotten them."

Amaimon shifted, silent again, and Rin wondered whether he should try explaining further, though he wasn't sure what to say anymore.

"I still don't understand," Amaimon spoke up, hand tightening on Mephisto's back, "there was no other choice, your actions were the only options with the most optimal outcome you could have taken with the information you had."

"That's-" Rin paused, struck speechless. The only option? Best possible outcome? Did Amaimon really think that? He, Rin had thought he'd screwed up yet again, Yukio's anger before he'd left him telling, because his twin was always the more logical and strategic of the two, right?

His mouth worked without words as he tried to process those questions, prompting Amaimon to sigh and chew at one of his long black claws, "Samael is the only one who kept you safe in Assiah. If he had fallen and you didn't try to save him, you would be signing your own death warrant because Lucifer wouldn't wait long to come after you for our Father."

Ice cut through Rin's spine like a cruel dagger and he shivered despite his natural core of fire and the warm weather.

"Oh," he whispered, eyes darting down, "I hadn't really thought of that- I remember you and Beelzebub said something like that earlier, about Lucifer and his deals with Mephisto."

"Yes," Amaimon's simple agreement had Rin sucking in a breath, steadying himself, "so I don't see why you need to apologize."

He was right, in his own way, Rin sniffed as his nose prickled with his rising emotions, chasing the last of his regrets away before they manifested and saw the sound made Amaimon's eyes narrow, like it bothered him somehow.

It made Rin smile, feeling lighter than he had since the entire start of the catastrophe that he'd found himself in, "you're right, thanks, Amaimon."

"Hn," Amaimon grunted, head jerking to the side as if to avoid Rin's smile, "are you done with your human business?"

"Yep," Rin beamed wider. His situation might suck, and he might die in the process or even fail at saving Mephisto entirely. But he was ready to try.

"Let's go to Gehenna!"

A snap-

Sounds, like the world itself was screaming directly into his ears, loud enough to make Rin cry out in both shock and pain as his vision blurred and his awareness fell with it.

The last thing he saw was Amaimon staring down at Mephisto, expression unreadable and nose a scant inch away from the body he held, as if he was about to press it the rest of the distance into the white folds of fabric there.

Rin's conscious slipped from him as the earth tilted beneath his feet.

* * *

"I'm-"

The message cut off, room echoing with the beep of the tone.

Yukio watched his phone screen go black with inactivity, Rin's words and the information revealed in them burning in his mind.

"There you have it, Sirs, the spawn of Satan is going to Gehenna."

Yukio quelled his reaction to the confirmation from the Arc Knight on the other side of the table while he spoke with the Grigori through the video screen.

"Well, that's a real kicker, eh, kid?"

Yukio didn't hide the glare at being referred to so insultingly by the Arc Knight.

"What will you do with this information, then, Sir Lewin?"

A wide, carefree grin lit up the Lightning Knight's face, Yukio's cool irritation somehow delighting him rather than bothering him.

Nothing seemed to bother him, not even their possible annihilation at the hands of Satan when he gained control of Rin's body and opened a Gehenna Gate between Assiah and Gehenna.

Rin…

God. _Fucking_. Dammit, Rin.

He was going to _lose_ him.

He was already lost the moment he saved the demon king of time.

Shiro- _dad_, Yukio caught himself thinking the name and shoved the urge to cry down deep where it couldn't hurt him. Father Fujimoto wasn't there to fix things, wasn't there with a steady hand and laid-back grin on his face to chase the demons away anymore.

Yukio had to handle this himself now.

"Well," Lewin scratched at his unwashed ratty hair with dirt-stained nails, smile still on his face, "we gotta prepare for war with Satan, obviously."

War, Yukio gulped, closing his eyes and dropping his chin to his chest.

They were going to _war_.

* * *

End notes: So I guess Amaimon is really just out there, taking Rin on a "romantic" tour of Assiah and Gehenna, like, when will your fav ever XD They're missing out on the romantic candlelit dinners though, Amaimon's gotta get on that, since Rin is gonna be hard pressed to cook on the run lololol

I'm not sure if tracking works like this in the series either. Like, Lucifer seems to be able to sense when Amaimon possesses a new body in Assiah, but do they know where the other kings are at all times?

Or just that they're in whichever dimension they're currently in (i.e. bc Lucifer was in Assiah, he could sense that Amaimon appeared in Assiah too, but didn't seem to know he'd left his old body and gone to Gehenna earlier), or just that they've gained a new body, but can't feel whether they've jumped between worlds or which world they're in?

Idk but for this fic's purposes I've gone with that they can sense when another king has entered/possessed a new host, but not that they've jumped dimensions or what world they're in.


	4. The Road Through Fiery Perdition

**Briar Rose Chapter 4: The Road Through Fiery Perdition**

Summary: Over the river (of lava) and through the wood (full of demons) to grandmother's house (Iblis's kingdom) we go~ Rin and Amaimon have just realized something very important about how the journey to Iblis' is going to go: Rin is a trouble-magnet of the highest magnitude. It's almost a super-power at this point.

Notes: I think my favorite thing to read is characters forced to bond on long journeys spent overcoming trials and patching up each other's wounds (not that Rin or Amaimon will need to worry about that…sort of, yet ;D) and realizing they've come to care about each other more than anything else in the world by the end of the journey (romantic or not, you know, bc I love that found family trope too lol).

So basically what I'm getting at is Rin and Amaimon are gonna BOND this chapter :D

Song of the Chapter: Who are you Really by Mikky Ekko

* * *

He'd fallen unconscious from the strain of the travel through dimensions.

How… fragile.

Amaimon looked down at the still form of Rin Okumura, breathing deeply to take in the familiar scents of Gehenna. He caught the hint of other-worldly fire from Rin and frowned as it mixed with Samael's scent.

The fire-smell couldn't cover up that Samael was already beginning the degradation process, his powers to stall it failed with the curse. Now, the rot would set in like it did for all of them and Samael would decay at the rate he would have without his abilities.

Not as quickly as Lucifer, but he didn't have the luxury of time that Amaimon had with his host bodies, either.

Or that would be the case if that were the only problem they were dealing with.

The curse was speeding the process up, Amaimon grimaced, setting Samael down next to Rin so he could plan their route. He could have woken Rin, but he needed time to think about things without the inevitable deluge of naïve questions Rin would have upon waking.

Samael's healing would function as all of theirs did until the curse began using the draining reserves. Then the body would begin to fail in earnest.

Not for the first time since he'd found himself in this situation, Amaimon wished he'd forced himself to stay in Gehenna back then.

But…

There wasn't anything he could have changed by being there, anyway.

And his reason for leaving in the first place hadn't become any lesser in the following centuries- though the space away from the other Baal had given him time to come to terms with that reason, in the end.

He glared at Samael, despite knowing it was useless, because he couldn't do anything else. The messy fall of his bangs into his face made Amaimon scowl harder, flashing back to the utterly strange sight of the way Rin had been so careful in fixing them before the talk with Astaroth began.

What was Rin's connection to Samael? The last he'd seen of their interactions, it had seemed Rin behaved much like many humans did to Samael's ways- irritation, confusion, and wariness to the stronger predator in their midst.

Which Amaimon understood, worms should be afraid of their power, even while they lacked the senses to perceive it in its entirety.

But clearly there had been something he'd missed. Something important.

Rin was an unusual case, Amaimon was beginning to appreciate.

The only way to understand the other half of the equation was to observe Rin in action, which, Amaimon grimaced again, he'd have plenty of time to do.

The heat billowing out of the bubbling magma pool deep in a crevasse that bordered Iblis' domain blew into his eyes, dry wind making him blink back the tears it forced out in response.

Amaimon hadn't been there, when Assiah had formed- not in the way he was now, at least, but he imagined it looked much like the terrain Iblis favored. He carried the knowledge deep in the core of what made him what he was, the humans' certainty in his existence and the land that was their home allowing him to feel into every aspect of their world.

He would like to have been there, before everything, at the start of it all. But that was Samael's territory, not his.

That was Assiah, this was Gehenna, and much more dangerous.

They would have to avoid certain parts, Amaimon knew, where Iblis had her kin patrol, if they wanted to make it the rest of the way to her keep.

But the reason she didn't have them patrol every corner of her kingdom was because the dangers that lurked there more than made up for her lax guard.

He would be fighting at a handicap, too. Amaimon chewed at his clawed thumb as he paced around Rin and Samael's bodies, letting the dark ground beneath his boots crumble to sand and reform in irritated flexes of his power.

The necessity of making it through her territory without her notice was paramount. They couldn't afford to not take her by surprise, as much as she would be furious about that, never having been fond of unannounced visits.

If she had forewarning, she would have no choice but to alert Father or Lucifer and then their efforts really would be for nothing.

Destroying something wouldn't change that fact, Amaimon knew, but it would make him feel better. He let out a long sigh instead, restraining himself, because he would have plenty of time to take out his frustrations on the challenges ahead.

Now, to wake Rin- Amaimon squinted down at him- and begin answering questions.

Well, Amaimon felt amusement bubble in his chest until it made his lips twitch, he would get to enjoy the shock his waking would cause, in any case.

He snapped his fingers and Rin blinked his eyes open.

* * *

Rin came awake with sudden awareness and the echoes of a snap in his ears, blinking to clear the haze from his eyes as he tried to figure out why he'd been asleep in the first place.

Only to come face to sleeping face with Mephisto an inch away.

A strangled sound made it past his lips and a confused flush rose to his cheeks as he scrambled away, barely registering the hard surface scraping his palms.

His mind flashed back to the last time he'd woken like that when Shiemi had decided waiting for him to wake up after the Impure King mission by laying across from him, watching him, was a good idea for his sleep addled brain.

Why did these things keep happening to him?

"Did you sleep well, Rin?"

The guileless question had Rin jerking his head around to glare at the owner of the voice, because no way did Amaimon not know what he was doing.

"What happened, why was I knocked out, and-" Rin sucked in a breath, eyes narrowing as his stream of demands for answers made Amaimon's mouth stretch further. The bastard had definitely been anticipating his reaction, "-and why the hell did you put Mephisto right there next to me, dammit!"

A sucker appeared in another snap of Amaimon's fingers and he popped it into his mouth, fangs clacking against it as he lost the attempts to keep a smirk off his face, "you're not very good with spatial awareness, are you?"

Of course the bastard answered with another question, Rin crossed his arms where he sat, "space-what awareness?"

Then the sounds of his environment trickled in and Rin realized what Amaimon might have been talking about.

Heat that had been an insistent presence since he'd woken up finally had Rin looking around for a source.

And then he saw… hell?

Molten lava seeping through worn grooves in the ground to disappear into a deep crevasse greeted his eyes while the horizon was broken up by sharp juts of black stone until it made a pseudo-forest of spines.

Their location was on the outer edges of the start of the flat ground that surrounded the plane of spires. A purple miasma seemed to hover insistently in the air, drifting in eddies of hot wind and making it difficult to see into the stretch of land opposite the magma spires.

All of which was ringed in a deep scar, dark flame making strange shadows on the equally as dark walls that faded to pools of magma down below.

"Uh," he mumbled, edging back towards Mephisto and away from the fiery pit he'd inadvertently neared in his panicked awakening. Rin didn't stop until he'd reached the newly rumpled and dirtied cape where it surrounded Mephisto on the ground.

Amaimon wouldn't let Mephisto lay anywhere too dangerous right? Which meant the ledge they were on was probably not going to crumble into the magma any moment, or at least he could grab onto Mephisto so Amaimon would have no choice but to rescue him, too.

Also, Rin scowled up at Amaimon, who was still playing with the sucker in his mouth and watching Rin with amusement flashing in his eyes and definitely _not_ being helpful. "Where are we, Amaimon?"

"Did you lose your memory?" Amaimon said, cocking hip and resting a hand there, "we're in Gehenna now."

"I know that!" Rin fumed at the deliberate obtuseness, "_where_ in Gehenna?"

He was forced to tilt his head back as Amaimon came towards him and, when it didn't look like he would stop, Rin rose to his feet before he could close the distance anymore. He didn't need his throat getting assaulted again if Amaimon decided baring it was an invitation.

"We're at the edge of Iblis, King of Fire and fourth in Gehenna's, domain," Amaimon said. The more serious tone of his voice had Rin tensing, though it went unnoticed as Amaimon lifted Mephisto over his shoulder again, cleaning the dust with a snap. Though, before he did, he glanced Rin's way, an unreadable expression replacing the mocking one he'd worn earlier.

That he'd made the small effort- remembering the unease Rin felt at Mephisto being out of sorts, brought a small smile to Rin's face, the gratitude at the gesture surprising him with its appearance.

Maybe not a complete bastard, then.

Amaimon's brows drew together when he saw the smile, turning away from Rin to stare across the ravine.

"We have to make it through without alerting her patrols," he said while Rin came up beside him to try to get a better look at where they'd be headed.

"So," Rin glanced at Amaimon from the corner of his eyes, wondering at the way he tucked the teasing, almost playful, side of himself away so quickly, "do you know a way through?"

"Er, wait," Rin interrupted before Amaimon could answer, "why don't we just teleport like we did earlier?"

That got a grunt out of Amaimon, eyes narrowing at his surroundings, "Iblis is stronger than me, her wards that surround her kingdom would incinerate my host body if I tried."

"Wards?" Rin mumbled, then yelped as Amaimon leapt over the ravine without another word and he had to scramble to follow.

He caught a glimpse of the magma, glowing with a dark, almost purple hue, deep below him as he made it over and shivered to think of falling in it.

Would his blue flames protect him from other fires? Rin had no idea and wasn't interested in testing it in Gehenna.

Then it was just general foreboding following at his heels as he trailed after Amaimon.

Another curl of purple miasma parted under his hand as they moved further into the forest of spires- it was kinda cool, being somewhere so surreal, Rin decided.

Mephisto's hair, once again moving with every step from Amaimon, became Rin's center focus as he fell into place behind them.

Not for lack of trying. The otherworldly sounds echoing and bouncing around between the spires had Rin's ears twitching, on high alert, unable to recognize what might be something about to leap out and attack, or just the wind.

But, inevitably, his gaze would swing back to the middle, and there would be Amaimon's back and glimpses of Mephisto's sleeping face whenever he shifted.

Maybe it was time to ask about what was up with that Iblis demon and the other one, Eg-something, that Amaimon had brushed off with Astaroth?

A grimace tugged at Rin's lips. Yukio always told him he couldn't read a room well and he had seen the tip of what was probably a very, very deep iceberg earlier.

Normally he'd jump right into being a nuisance- once again, Yukio's words, not his- but he'd never been so out of his comfort zone before, either.

Rin shook his head. What was he doing? Just earlier he'd determined to ask as many questions as possible because his and Mephisto's lives depended on him not being his typical clueless self.

"Hey, uh, is there anything I should know about Iblis and that other guy we might have to go to?"

His question joined the echoes, surreal when they came back to him and making Rin wince at how loud it was. Maybe that was what caused the tensing in Amaimon's back, but Rin couldn't stop the suspicion that it had been his words that did it instead.

Gold flickered as Amaimon glanced at Rin from the corner of his eye before Rin stared at the back of his head again.

"Iblis sides with Father and Lucifer," Amaimon finally spoke, voice coming clear over the still air between them, but heavy with the weight of his revelation. "But, she'll give us the same leniency Astaroth did."

"Really? Why?" Rin blurted, still very confused about the interpersonal relationships between the kings and how they could be on opposite sides but still somehow get along like they weren't technically fighting.

Another long pause from Amaimon.

"She doesn't always get along with Egyn either," he said, voice bare of emotion, as if his words actually gave Rin any clarity about his original question.

Rock shifted, or something shifted against the rocks.

Where? It was hard to pinpoint when sound warped amongst the spires.

Amaimon stopped, ears twitching and body on an alert that prompted Rin into hunching in preparation for an attack.

"Rin-" Amaimon turned, Rin's name on his lips in low warning. His eyes widened when their gazes met.

He moved before he his mind caught up with his body, palms scraping over the black shards that made up the ground and breath leaving in a whoosh when his chest met soon after.

Rin hadn't dodged.

He'd been pushed down.

Obsidian sliced into his cheek when the impact of a body threw more shards outward faster than Rin could track. Screeching at heart stopping volumes sent adrenaline shooting through Rin's veins and froze him in place where he lay.

The black dust tossed up swirled with movement Rin felt but couldn't see, only the vaguest suggestion of shapes darkened his already dim view.

Then the dust parted, a dusky red blur launched from the center into one of the spires to crack a deep line down the middle, mirroring the snap of bones in whatever the creature, now silent and still, had in its body.

Chittering screeches came from the cloud from what must have been another of the creatures Amaimon fought.

Rin scrambled to his feet, searching for an opening to help, even if he only had his claws.

He didn't get the chance, head jerking to the side.

Something large shook the earth from beyond the crown of spires, sending Rin's heart pounding as he readied himself for what moved towards their position.

Another splintering crack threw black shards into the temporary arena the battle zone had become and Rin ducked low to avoid getting any slivers in his eyes.

Moving stone set with a spider-web of red, glowing cracks sent spires crashing to the ground as a behemoth of a creature roared deep enough to shake Rin's bones and set his fangs elongating in his mouth in automatic defense.

How the hell was he supposed to fight a giant rock? Suddenly his claws seemed so weak and not up to the task.

The creature caught sight of him- however that worked when it didn't seem to have eyes- it didn't matter, Rin had to move.

A leg the size of Kuro after he'd grown into his larger form swept towards him, forcing Rin to roll beneath it in a desperate dodge, his body bouncing when the leg hit the ground before he could scrabble out from the underside to relative safety.

It struck faster than Rin thought possible- and faster than he could react, too.

Solid stone slammed to his stomach and Rin heard a crack, felt something break inside, and stopped breathing- couldn't breathe even if he'd wanted to, in-fact.

"Ah-!" His weak cry cut off, agony lancing through him while his vision spun and blood hit the back of his teeth with the involuntary gagging that erupted until he flew, stunned, at the apex of the swing to a far outcropping.

More black dust billowed up around his fallen body, blocking his view of the demon, though he heard it approaching, honing in.

_Have to get up- can't keep getting my ass handed to me!_

He rose, a thick string of blood dripping from his lips as he clutched his healing middle and crouched low in preparation of doing...something, he'd think of it when the time came.

Rumbling like a rockslide coming towards him sent him into a readied stillness, claws flexing even though he knew they'd have even less than an effect. His heartbeat slowed, flame building under his skin as if begging to be released from the sword strapped to his back and a pounding began at the back of his skull.

The dust swirled in a stray wind and he gasped, heart pounding against his ribs at the sight of the demon barreling straight towards him with no sign of slowing or changing course.

But he stood his ground, fist clenching and preparing for the impact. He'd taken a punch from Amaimon, whatever this demon could throw couldn't compare.

Snarling from bared fangs, Rin braced himself-

-Maroon and white blocked his view, a lithe form appearing in front of him for a second before vanishing like an after-image to re-form steps from the charging demon.

Amaimon lashed out, a single punch thrown from reptilian arms that had replaced his human ones to hit the center-mass without a moment's hesitation.

A percussive blast crumpled the shell of the massive demon like a tin can until the inner glow cut off and it fell in a wave of dust and shaking earth.

Rin blinked, a rapid flutter of lashes as tears from the debris tossed into his face forced them out. But also because watching Amaimon so effortlessly demolish something that once would have given Rin serious pause- still did, without his sword or flames to back him up- was just… really…

He didn't get time to complete the thought.

Pain bit into his side, a blinding flash that tackled him forward until he hit the ground and gagged, instincts pushing him to twist and latch his claws into whatever had attacked him before heaving to get some space so he could figure out what that hell that had been.

Eyes like red glass rolled to focus on him from the creature that resolved itself into something like a slimy lizard. Except this lizard was on fire and coming for him again with a hiss that sounded more like steam escaping a crack than any sound that should be coming from a mouth.

Amaimon landed on the creature's back and Rin could only watch as he struck with black claws straight through the head of the writhing demon even as its defensive flames seared his skin from his body.

Writhing struggles eventually faded into twitches as the final death throes ran their course and life faded until the creature lay limp in death.

The area echoed in the sudden silence.

It was over.

Standing from his crouch, Amaimon cleaned the steaming lizard-thing's blood from his claws with a short flick, brows drawn as he considered the body, then spoke as if to himself, "they shouldn't be this far out of their territory, she's changed her patrol formations, something's wrong."

His reptilian claws faded back to the more human-shaped hands in another fluid motion.

Gold eyes snapped to Rin and a downward twitch of Amaimon's lips had him drawing up where he'd still been in his curled position on the now ravaged ground.

"What is wrong with you?" Rin's pulse jumped at the question, eyes widening at the expectant brow raised at him from Amaimon.

"What?" He rasped out, coughing to get the rest of the blood from his now healed lungs as he stood.

Amaimon flicked his hands in a vague gesture to their surroundings, Mephisto still held over his shoulder and now looking wind-ruffled and covered in the dust churned up during the fight.

"Were you trying to die?" The cocked head and slightly mocking tone had Rin bristling in embarrassment.

"No! I just- I usually use my flames or my sword against things that big and-" Rin crossed his arms, unable to come up with a defense to Amaimon's judgement.

"You attacked me without your sword," Amaimon said, pointed and mirroring Rin's pose, arm crossing with the other over the backs of Mephisto's knees.

"Seriously? You're not made of _literal_ _rocks_." Rin scowled, not liking the way Amaimon looked at him like he was stupid. Like he was weak. He grit his teeth together.

That gave Amaimon pause, but, by the way he seemed like he was chewing something over, Rin suspected it wasn't because he suddenly decided Rin had made a good point.

"You don't know how to fight, do you." It was a question, but it sounded like a statement.

"It's not like I ever got formal lessons or anything," Rin admitted, much as it rankled him, sighing and ruffling his tangled hair, "just street brawls and a couple sword lessons from Shura."

"You don't know how to fight," Amaimon said as if in confirmation, another sigh on his tongue and eyelids shuttering as if asking for patience.

"Whatever, I'm a hands-on learner," Rin said, growling, "I won't freeze next time."

Amaimon hummed, showing how much he believed Rin. But, before Rin could snap something back, he turned, snapped to clear the signs of the fight from Mephisto, and started walking again, "you're weak without your flames- and untrained."

Rin narrowed his eyes, hackles rising at being called weak as he stalked after Amaimon.

It wasn't like Amaimon had any room to talk. He'd just thrown a punch. Rin's lips twisted further, mentally correcting that statement. He'd thrown a punch that stopped a beast the size of a house and hadn't even looked winded after.

He knew he was strong, could remember facing him at the amusement park and again in the forest before he'd fallen to his instincts, and the ultimate culmination of his power where Amaimon had nearly done to him what he'd just done to the giant stone demon. But to see another glimpse of it had Rin wondering if he'd ever stood a chance in their fights at all.

Thinking about it, he came to the same conclusion he had after the last fight they'd been in, which was that no, as he was, he most definitely couldn't stand up to Amaimon when he fought seriously.

Well, there was only one way that was going to change. Rin lengthened his strides until he caught up to Amaimon and met the blank expression with a determined one of his own.

"Teach me to fight."

His words had an immediate effect, Amaimon twitched, head swinging to face him more and brows raising. Rin saw the look and opened his mouth to argue his case.

"Okay."

"What, really?" Rin blurted out, not expecting Amaimon to agree so easily.

There was a gleam in Amaimon's eyes as his mouth stretched into a grin, "yes, really."

That almost made the glare reform on Rin, not liking the obvious teasing from Amaimon, but then he realized why he'd expected a harder time convincing him to teach him and felt his mood sour.

Yukio had never made it easy for him to get any kind of physical training, sticking him with the flame training with Shura that made Rin's temper spike from the lack of progress until he felt as likely to have a meltdown as the candles had.

Or he was stuck with the boring training with the rest of his friends that didn't really ever exert him, always leaving him feeling too wound up by the end of it with no way to blow off steam after.

Even the few missions he'd been able to go on never really made him feel like he had pushed himself to the limit. Especially before, when he'd had to hide his demonic side from his friends. But, even once they'd learned about his heritage, the only time he'd been able to go all out had been fighting the Impure King and…

Rin shot a glance at Amaimon, his heart skipping for a reason he couldn't place.

The only other time he'd gotten to unleash his flames without concern for keeping them contained had been with Amaimon. He couldn't remember much from that night in the forest, just the heady power in his veins and the fury he'd directed at the one who'd dared challenge him- who'd dared attack what was his- though it all whirled into one confused mess of instincts and kaleidoscope images once he'd gone berserk.

And now Amaimon had just promised him a chance to reach that level of effort again. He hadn't realized it until the buzz of the trial had left him, but after the forest fight he'd been satisfied in a way he'd never felt before. The ache in his limbs and weakness in his body from the energy exertion making sleep come easy, despite the anxiety over what his friends would think after the reveal.

It had been freeing, coming clean like that, of getting to relieve some of the ache of holding back in a too tight skin. Of pretending to be something he wasn't.

He wanted that relief again and realized he'd be getting possibly more than enough if they kept getting attacked like they had.

At least he'd been able to settle that, but something else niggled at his mind.

"Hey, what were you saying before, when you killed the lizard thing?" Rin asked.

"Salamander," Amaimon said, and it took Rin a moment to realize he was correcting his terminology, not calling him a salamander, whatever that was.

"Yeah, that, what were you saying about it?" Rin said with the correction.

Amaimon's expression never changed from the bored one he favored Rin with, mouth moving like he was tonguing his teeth beneath his lips until he spoke, "I don't know yet. It could mean nothing, it could mean word has already reached Iblis."

"Er, isn't that _bad_?" Rin tried for calm, once again totally lost as to why the other demon kings- the ones on _Satan's_ side that wanted to _kidnap_ him- knowing they were on their way wasn't something to panic about.

Still nothing. Rin wanted to shake him until he got a reaction.

"Only if it gets back to Father," Amaimon said, shrugging as if he was talking about a normal family where news traveling the grapevine was about a sibling getting a new pet, not whatever the hell they actually were.

"Are you as slow at running as you are in a fight?"

"Hey!" Rin growled at the insult, though Amaimon just looked at him expectantly. Rin had the sudden realization that he would be enjoying having Amaimon teach him to fight, if only to get a chance to pay him back all the teasing remarks.

"I can run just fine," he said, already feeling his muscles tense in preparation.

Another shrug. "If you say so. Let's go."

Rin had a moment to react after hearing Amaimon, bolting along behind the vague after-image and pulse picking up with the shot of adrenaline that hit. Amaimon wasn't moving at the pace of a human, wasn't even pretending to.

A grin stretched its way onto Rin's face. He darted forward, quickly finding his legs beneath himself and catching up to Amaimon, getting a glimpse over the shoulder before he returned to guiding them.

His mind went to those first few weeks at the Academy where he'd had to hide his demonic nature from his friends. Even keeping to slightly faster than Bon during their runs around the leaper cages had been hard, his blood pounding in his veins and muscles telling him he could go so much faster if he just let go.

Now, he got the feeling that Amaimon was testing him to see if he could keep up. Something in him was only too happy to show that he could.

Half his attention stayed on the black spires they dodged around. Rin knew running face-first into one of them- besides being completely embarrassing to do in front of Amaimon- would not be fun to recover from.

The other half let the joy of physical exertion take over, body instinctively falling into a rhythm, knowing he was in it for the long haul, since who knew how far they had to go yet. Well, Amaimon did but he doubted he wanted to stop just to answer another question from Rin.

Misma parted before him while shards shifted every time he touched down, the precarious steps heightening his awareness as he battled against slipping with the force of his impact.

Amaimon zig-zagged through the spires and Rin followed the tatters of his coat, sparing a brief thought about whether they'd see any more demons and determining to not be so useless the next time they saw any.

Their journey continued, silent except for the wind cutting past his ears and whipping the strands of his hair to sting his skin until he was sure, if he looked, there would be red welts formed.

But they kept at it until Rin got used to the right movements to make it over the terrain with the least effort. A sense of enjoyment came every time he launched off the hard surface of a spire or kicked black sand into the air, giving him something to entertain himself besides his own thoughts.

Just when his legs began feeling the strain of exertion, Rin yelped as Amaimon stopped in the middle of a jagged opening between the massive obelisks the spires had been slowly turning into the further they went.

Rin blew past him, body screaming as he dug his claws into the ground to stop his forward momentum until he finally skidded to a stop in a cloud of dust and coughed when it got into his lungs.

He grumbled under his breath, knowing Amaimon definitely wouldn't understand why a warning or slowing down before coming to a stop were available options instead of just hoping Rin was a mind reader and would know he was about to slam on the breaks.

"Why'd we stop here?" Rin asked when he made it to the clearing.

Instead of answering right away, Amaimon drew his hand up, a square of sand rising with it before he clenched his fist and it solidified into the same hard stone of the spires, making almost a bed that Rin watched him place Mephisto on.

A second later and spines like a ribcage rose over Mephisto. Rin got one last look at his windblown hair thrown across his face before Amaimon flicked a wrist and sent the whole thing over to the base of the nearest obelisk.

"Er-" Rin couldn't get anything out, Amaimon making a motion to bring Rin's attention to another obelisk.

"Hit that, as hard as you can."

Yeah. Rin stared up at the pillar's hard, unyielding surface and could already feel the broken bones. But, he'd had worse injuries over the past months since unsheathing Kurikara so, with a huff of breath and a shake of his hands, Rin put all he had into a punch to the center of the pillar.

A crack split the air a second before Rin felt the agony of bones snapping in his hand and breaking skin.

Black shards splintered around the impact site, an inverted bowl-shape where his fist had stopped half-way through while a deep line reached the rest of the way to the other side.

Hah! Rin grinned, the ache of his maimed hand fading as it healed. He turned to smile in triumph at Amaimon only to see a bored expression on his face and a sucker in his mouth where he sat on the raised stone stool he'd made while Rin had been distracted.

"What?" Rin said, feeling his eye twitch at the unimpressed look.

Amaimon crunched through the sucker, scraping a black claw to his cheek as he considered Rin before speaking, "you held back, why did you hold back?"

"No I didn't!" But the protest just had Amaimon talking to himself again.

"What happened to the power he had in the forest? Can he not use it without his heart out? How disappointing for me."

"I wasn't holding back," Rin growled, clenching his hands until he felt claws prick at his palms.

Gold eyes focused on him again as Amaimon spat out the finished sucker from his mouth and stood. "You were. Maybe you need motivation."

Rin didn't get a chance to argue. Amaimon appeared before him and sank his fist into his gut.

His breath left in a forced whoosh as he slammed into the same obelisk He'd just hit, only this time his scattered senses registered the sound of stone shattering as he broke through to the other side and into the next spire.

"_Gah-!_" Rin choked, blood hitting the backs of his fangs and leaving flecks on his lips. His mouth gaped, body trying to get air into damaged lungs and failing while his head burned without oxygen.

Whirling colors from what was definitely a concussion made his stomach give a sickening lurch as he tried to orientate himself and couldn't through the yellow-green kaleidoscope his vision had become.

"Please fight me like you did in the forest- ah, without your flames, though, or Father might sense you," came the words from Amaimon, called out from where he'd stopped with his fist still raised across his chest as he waited for Rin.

_Bastard_. Rin hissed between extended fangs, the burning in his skull no longer from lack of air and healing fractures, but from anger at being tossed around like a rag doll.

From being called _weak_.

Heat simmered under his skin. Rin pulled himself from the indent in the rock.

He attacked.

Flying over the space Amaimon had put between them, Rin hauled his fist back to return the favor, gaze pinned to the unimpressed one staring back until he saw himself reflected in the gold of his irises.

Then Amaimon vanished and Rin felt his arm wrenched to the side by his wrist, pulling him off-balance and sending him face-first into the ground.

Black filled his vision, in part because of what he'd landed in, but mostly because he'd hit so hard his head was still ringing even as he got his feet under him and snarled, searching for Amaimon.

He caught the deep maroon color of Amaimon's coat and reached with extended claws to get ahold of some part of him but, just as he felt the edges of the worn fabric, it slipped away and he was thrown to the ground again.

So he tried again, snarl on his lips and heated breath on his tongue that threatened flames.

And again, Amaimon slipped right through his guard, palm flat on his back to send him tumbling down.

Again.

Rin spat out sand, the grit caught in his teeth where he'd met ground for the millionth time rubbing his gums as raw as his nerves.

"Dammit! How are you doing that?" Rin jerked towards Amaimon who still watched him, as unruffled as if he'd just started.

Amaimon cocked his head, bringing his thumb to his mouth to bite at the claw.

"You project every move you make, did you know that?"

"Project?" Rin said, blinking as he tried to figure out what a project had to do with Amaimon somehow seeing and anticipating every one of his attacks.

His guard went back up when Amaimon dropped his hand and walked towards him- was he about to attack again? Rin shifted his foot, getting ready to duck or, as had become readily apparent, try to duck and instead get tossed like he hadn't moved at all.

"That," Amaimon said, gesturing to Rin's feet like it explained anything, "don't do that."

"Do what?"

The question barely left his mouth before Amaimon was in his space and kicking at his foot.

He yelped, getting one confused look up at Amaimon before he found himself falling to the side like he'd been yanked.

"Ah!" Rin gasped as his chest slammed down hard enough that he couldn't breathe again, though a passing thought said at least he hadn't coughed blood up, this time.

If Amaimon pulled that _one more time_-

Rin shook himself, scrambling to his feet to glare at Amaimon, "that doesn't actually help!"

Furrowed brows met him as Rin felt his lip curl over his fangs.

But Amaimon relaxed his body and seemed to be thinking about his next move so some of the irritation bled out of Rin and he crossed his arms, waiting.

"Hmm, okay," Amaimon hummed, coming to a decision and stepping towards Rin.

"Huh?" Rin made to step back from the advance but Amaimon gripped his shoulder, keeping him in place with a hand like an iron clamp.

A foot kicked at the inside of his foot and Rin bit off another shout of affront as Amaimon adjusted his body with quick, efficient movements.

It was over in moments, the hand on Rin's shoulder pulling away as Amaimon surveyed his work with a blank expression and a short nod.

"You can't use your flames, so you have to use your strength and claws to your advantage- and you have to stop getting hit," Amaimon said while Rin stayed frozen in the position he'd been put in.

"Ah- dodging, too, and predicting another's movements, using your senses instead of being led by them…" With each new thing Rin had to learn, a clawed finger curled, ticking like he was checking items off a list.

"And," Amaimon tapped a claw to Rin's forehead, making him go cross-eyed at the sting, stunned by the sudden touch, "you have to stop holding back."

Rin shook his head, cheeks heating as the sharp sensation lingered even after he'd dislodged it, "okay, okay, _fine_, I can do that."

His words did about as much to convince Amaimon as they had before, which was nothing.

He'd put distance between them again, standing a few feet away and loosening his stance. Then he raised a hand and quirked a finger at Rin, "try to hit me again, please."

The suspicion that things would end the exact same as they had the last thousand times Rin had tried to hit Amaimon didn't mean the order would change any time soon, so Rin narrowed his eyes and aimed right for the bastard's blank expression.

-And Amaimon had a hand up to knock his arm to the side so that Rin ended up stumbling forward without anything to stop him, just brushing past Amaimon's shoulder on his way by until he could stop.

"Again," came the order.

So Rin turned and aimed for his middle this time.

Heat snapped under his skin when Amaimon did something with his feet that allowed him to twist and avoid the hit with what looked like no effort at all.

He swiped with increasingly violent attacks as the air around his body shimmered with the suppressed fire coming out as waves, the only thing of Rin's to make contact with Amaimon.

_Stay still- stay still!_

As if by Rin's unspoken command, Amaimon stopped dodging. One moment, he was shunting Rin aside, the next taking hold of his wrist and tugging Rin off balance.

Wrenching on his shoulder where he now dangled from Amaimon's hand had Rin hissing in pain and trying to pull free.

"You're still just wildly attacking, are you even trying?" Amaimon dropped Rin to the ground in the same heap he had been for the past half hour.

Shaking his head dislodged the dust and sand in his hair, giving Rin time to get his flames under control, though he felt them bubbling in his throat as he shot back up.

"Yes!" Rin jabbed a finger at Amaimon, "show me how you dodge like that."

He was mad, more than that, actually, his instincts clawing at his insides because he couldn't get at Amaimon despite the repeated attempts and even more pissed at getting his ass handed to him the whole time.

But, Rin also couldn't deny that it was also really, really cool and he wanted to learn as fast as possible so he could fight at Amaimon's level of skill. He had never been so excited to learn _anything_ in his life, in fact. Not that cooking hadn't become his point of pride and something he loved, but it hadn't begun that way.

Though necessity drove both skills, Rin had never had a teacher when it came to cooking anything outside the basics that his dad had shown him before he'd outgrown that and moved onto more difficult things.

In this, he had someone who probably had more years than Rin could comprehend learning how to fight. He just had to figure out the basics and move from there, like learning to cook.

He could do this.

Warmth pressed to his body, Rin squeaked, turning, wide-eyed, to stare over his shoulder at where Amaimon now stood an inch too close.

"Your stance is so poor a human could probably knock you over," Amaimon said, hands raising to adjust his upper-body while Rin's mind blanked.

His mind called up the last time they'd been so close and his neck tingled with the remembered lick Amaimon had given it, the way he'd held him effortlessly to the wall with dangerous claws pricking through his clothes to his vulnerable belly.

Rin's stomach twitched with ghost sensations and an unbidden shiver went down his spine.

This close, Rin couldn't help taking in Amaimon's scent, very aware of the scant distance between clawed fingers and his tail as he shoved at his shoulders and moved to adjust his hips and legs next.

"Do you see how this is better?" Amaimon spoke and his breath moved the strands of Rin's hair not coated in dust to tickle the tips of his now heated ears because he was _definitely_ blushing.

"Yeah- yep, I can-"

-Feel it, Rin completed in his head, forcing himself to break from the embarrassing memories so he didn't clue Amaimon into the fact that he was thinking about them at all. He didn't doubt Amaimon would tease him mercilessly about it after he'd been so insistent about not messing with him like that.

"Good, we'll do this slowly, then," Amaimon said with no hints that he'd noticed the effect he was having on Rin.

"Right now," Amaimon began, voice bored but in a pitch that made Rin automatically pay attention, "you're working on instincts in a fight."

Amaimon went to stand in front of him, limbs loose as he regarded the stance he'd set Rin in, "but those instincts are worthless without Father's flames to back them up because you rely on overwhelming force to win your fights."

Rin suppressed a flinch as Amaimon reached for him again, trying not to show any reaction to the hand encircling his wrist or the other at his shoulder.

"So you need to build new instincts to fall back on when you can't use your flames," Amaimon said as he shook Rin's arm in front of his face like he was reminding Rin it was his, "you need the basics and you need to memorize them until they become automatic."

It sounded obvious, laid out in clear lines that made sense to Rin, which was just weird that Amaimon was probably the closest thing to a good teacher Rin had ever had besides his dad.

"Okay," Rin nodded to show he understood and was ready, tensing his body.

"When you're better at this you won't need to worry so much, but memorize this pose," Amaimon flicked a finger to Rin's shoulder, "it's your default and you should return to it- and don't stop moving, you should never be stationery in a fight."

"Oh!" Rin gasped, epiphany hitting him, "like a boxer!"

"A what?" Blank eyes met his, waiting for an explanation.

"Like this," Rin said bouncing lightly on his toes with his fists raised in front of his body and throwing shadow punches like he'd seen the professionals doing on TV.

A frown and claws scratching to Amaimon's cheek answered his example.

"You have bad form," Amaimon stated, making Rin grumble and stop, though, at a look from gold eyes, he returned to the previous pose with some minor adjustments from Amaimon until he was satisfied. "Don't swing your arm back, you leave yourself wide open."

He raised his fists, then threw a punch.

One, heart stopping second Rin thought he was getting punched into another wall, eyes squeezed shut as he waited for impact, the next, air rushed past his face.

"Don't close your eyes," Amaimon's instruction had him cracking his eyes open, flinching when he saw pale knuckles a centimeter from brushing his nose, "break that habit, even when you're attacking, too."

Before he could wonder how to train himself from flinching, Amaimon gripped his elbow and fist in his hands. Rin bit off another surprised squeak, knowing he'd have to get used to the random touches if he was going to learn anything.

His arm ended up extended, Amaimon twisting his fist flat at the end before drawing it back.

"Do you see? This is the full extension you should end at," warm fingers pressed to his skin, Rin doing everything in his power to focus on Amaimon's words and _not_ that, or how close he stood again, how close his breath was to his ears, "don't overextend or you leave yourself open, and don't bring your arm further back or you waste time."

"Try it."

The order shook Rin as Amaimon dropped his hand and he was quick to perform the motion, several times until he thought he had it down.

"Should I-" he yelped, jerking his head to his back leg where Amaimon tapped a claw.

"You're right-handed, so you should step with this leg and use this one to give you more power."

Why did he need to touch his legs to show him that? Rin wanted to shout the question but knew if he did then Amaimon would definitely know he was remembering the tail thing and that would just make things even more awkward. So he just had to keep acting like Amaimon touching random parts of his body as he instructed him was totally cool and nothing to think too hard about.

"Like this," Amaimon demonstrated a little hopping forward motion to go with the punch he'd shown Rin, "and don't close your eyes."

Rin mimicked the move under Amaimon's watchful eye.

"Good."

They went through a few more forms, Rin getting more comfortable with keeping himself fluid in the default position and his punches in the right zone.

Then Amaimon nodded, "next, falling and recovering."

"Falling?" Rin asked, then, seemingly with no effort at all, Amaimon hooked the toe of his boot behind Rin's knee and yanked him down.

"Oof!" Rin gasped, gaping up into the dark sky as he tried to understand how he'd ended up on the ground.

"Get up."

Scowling at the order didn't stop Amaimon from raising an impatient brow, so Rin grunted and stood. He didn't bother dusting himself off, knowing he'd more than likely wind up on his ass in a few minutes anyway.

"When you fall, you have to roll," Amaimon said when he had Rin's attention, "it lessens the impact and gives you the chance to dodge follow up attacks."

"Like this." And Rin got treated to the oddly graceful sight of Amaimon toppling himself backwards, light, like he weighed nothing at all, to bounce back up in a single fluid motion.

"Wow," Rin murmured, already moving to replicate what he'd seen.

He fell, gravity taking hold, banging his elbow to the ground before lurching to his feet, with a yelp at the fading bruise.

Amaimon snickered.

"Hey," Rin snapped a glare at him, "show me again, dammit, I'll get it right."

Grin still curled on Amaimon's face, he at least went through the fall again. Rin watched him closely. The way Amaimon fell like he was totally confident he could catch himself and had all the time in the world to do it had Rin chewing at his bottom lip.

Okay. He could do that. Again, Rin dropped, the twist at the end to get to his feet coming much easier, until Amaimon sent him a thumbs-up.

"Where'd you learn that?" Rin asked, because he was pretty sure the gesture was a human thing.

"Samael said it's a human gesture of acceptance, and I've noticed them doing it when I watched them on the streets."

Rin tried to think about Amaimon people watching to pick up their mannerisms and felt his lips twitch at the concept.

"Yeah, basically," Rin said, his own form of teaching, and wondered what other things Amaimon had picked up watching people, "what's next?"

"More falling."

As it turned out, there were a lot of ways to fall. Rin spent the next few minutes learning all of them, and then learning how to do them right.

"Good." But hearing that simple praise from Amaimon got Rin up each time, long after he was hopelessly coated in dust.

"Next up-" Amaimon began while Rin recovered from his latest fall.

"-Escaping a pin." Gold eyes gleamed with a light Rin couldn't place.

An arm came up around his throat, another hooked under his arm to connect next to his ear.

Rin froze, arching to escape the press of Amaimon's body behind him but unable to get far from the hard grip locking him in place.

Growling began in his chest, an instinctive reaction he forced back before it could fully form.

"I want you," Amaimon began, sending a shiver through Rin, "to hold me like this, please."

"Yeah, got it," Rin said, pretending the rasp in his voice was from the pressure on his windpipe and not the heartbeat he could feel through his back from Amaimon.

Great. Yeah. He could do this. Rin was glad Amaimon faced away from him so he wouldn't see his expression, knowing there was a blush on his cheeks by how hot they were as he wrapped his forearm around Amaimon's neck and pushed his arm up and under to hold him there.

"Break this hold like this." Amaimon sounded completely unaffected, demonstrating the escape by twisting.

The world twisted too, and Rin gasped, one moment, holding Amaimon, the next, airborne as Amaimon tackled him to the ground.

Maroon fabric pooled around him, Amaimon pressed over his body where they'd landed, pinning Rin with a knee over his hip and his wrists in one hand.

The other needled the points of his claws to Rin's throat where he'd broken into a cold sweat.

"Did you see what I did?" Amaimon said, and was it Rin's imagination or was there a purr running in an undercurrent to his words?

He didn't want to think about it, forcing his fangs back to nod. Rin knew, with a sudden clear view into the future, that he had to get this part down quickly or suffer infinitely more embarrassment.

Amaimon rose, allowing Rin up, and had Rin in the hold again.

Heart pounding hard once, Rin twisted in Amaimon's arms.

They went down, Rin remembering at the last second to get his knee shoved to Amaimon's hips and his hand on his wrists. He didn't have his claws out, fingers set to the artery in Amaimon's throat before he could stop himself.

The pulse under his fingertips beat even and slow as if to mock Rin's own that fluttered in his neck.

"Hm, you hesitated, but it's enough for now," Amaimon spoke, head tilting as he shrugged. Something about it had Rin focusing to the bared skin. His heart thudded.

His continued hesitation didn't go unnoticed. An abrupt move from Amaimon sent Rin rolling to the side, legs coming to bracket his hips and his wrists once more caught in Amaimon's hands.

"Ah!" Rin yelled in surprise, staring up into Amaimon's face and digging his heels to the sand to try getting leverage to push him off.

"I was going to have you try the other way around again, but we can practice breaking this pin since we're already here," came the casual response to Rin's attempts.

Oh god. This was some kind of punishment for something he'd done in a past life for sure. Rin bit back a whimper as he realized he'd been thrusting his hips to Amaimon's to try shaking him off.

"To get out of this one you have to push me to the side and follow through to get on top of me," Amaimon continued as though he didn't notice Rin flushed from his attempts to throw him, like he was perfectly content to sit on Rin throughout the entire explanation.

"Well?" Rin blinked, coming back to himself and wrenching his body with more force than was probably necessary to heave Amaimon to the side, sucking in a sharp breath to stop the growl that wanted to form. It formed anyway.

"Yes!" Amaimon grinned up at him, despite the wince of pain he'd shown when Rin's attack had slammed his head to the sand, "you didn't hold back."

He hadn't? A dark stain spreading in the black sand beneath Amaimon's hair sent Rin scrambling off him, "I'm sorry!"

Had he just hit Amaimon hard enough to fracture his skull? If he'd done that to a human, one of his friends, he'd have killed them. There would be no coming back from an injury like that, they wouldn't be like Amaimon, rising from the ground with red soaked sand encrusting his hair and a confused frown.

"Why did you stop?" He asked, irritated, "that was what you need to do."

His whole life, Rin had the lesson of restraint pounded into his brain, had seen what happened when he accidentally forgot and people got hurt. He hurt people.

And now Amaimon was telling him to ignore that, to unleash the strength that had gotten him fearful looks from everyone, had made his dad look at him with a sadness he tried to cover with gentle or teasing humor, with reminders to temper himself or wind up alone.

Amaimon narrowed his eyes, head dipping as he searched Rin's face. Then his expression deadened, "you're holding back because you're afraid of hurting others, not yourself."

That was it. Rin gulped, a short noise of assent making its way out, scared of what Amaimon would do with that knowledge.

"You can't afford that here," Amaimon growled, face twisting in a snarl, in rage, "we will _die_ if you keep holding back, if you treat this like a game, like you can expect the same _mercy_ from Gehenna."

Rin flicked his gaze to Mephisto, seeing his still body in the cage of obsidian. Then he thought about Yukio, his friends, waiting back in Assiah for him to return. Amaimon was right. Again.

He breathed out, slow, raising his gaze to Amaimon's and nodding, quiet but firm, "you're right, I won't hold back anymore."

"Show me," Amaimon hissed, snapping a clawed finger to point at another spire, larger than the first.

He moved before the last syllable had left Amaimon's mouth, throwing a punch like he'd been taught.

His punch hit his target, a sickening crunch of bone and cartilage where it impacted Amaimon's chest and flung him into and through the obsidian spire.

A percussive boom echoed the roar Rin let loose, savage victory sending his blood pounding in his ears and flames boiling under his skin.

Dust obscured Amaimon from him, but Rin could hear the heartbeat, could hear that it finally pounded to match his.

Good, now Amaimon would know he took this seriously, that it wasn't a game. Not to him.

Clouds swirled in the dust as a figure emerged.

Gleaming gold shone through first, the rest of Amaimon's figure breaking through the dust to reveal his concaved chest, ribs cracked and blood darkening the tatters of his clothes on his upper body.

It didn't stop the wide grin on his face or dim the wild delight of his expression.

Rin matched him, fangs bared and knowing his own eyes would be glowing with the energy inside.

The energy spun between them as Amaimon stalked closer, chest healing in wrenching pops as bones snapped back into place.

And Rin could smell the blood on him. He licked his tongue he discovered had grown long and tapered to his lips before he could think about the action.

"Good, Rin," Amaimon purred his name, dark like the blood that stained his lips and glistened off his fangs.

The call of his name rattled through Rin, pricking his attention as Amaimon came into range.

"We can continue now, unless you'd rather keep playing?"

What?

He blinked, trying to understand what Amaimon said, finding it difficult to think beyond the rumbled undercurrent beneath his voice to the actual meaning.

What had he been…?

The last rib popped into place, skin healing to close up around it just as Rin regained his mind.

Holy. Shit. Rin stumbled back from where he'd been about to lean into Amaimon, eyes wide as panic shocked him out of the haze of his instincts.

"Hm," Amaimon seemed disappointed, head cocked and wild gleam fading with Rin's distance, "so you _don't_ want to play."

No- yes, he did, but he didn't.

His tail twitched where it constricted around his chest like a vice, an attempt to hold himself back as he shivered at what his instincts had almost driven him to do.

"Yes, can we keep going now?" Rin said like he was another person, voice steady despite the inner turmoil, "how far are we?"

The rest of the beast in Amaimon fell beneath his impassive exterior again as he snapped to repair his damaged clothes and remove the blood.

"Another twenty-four hours, forty-eight, if we stop again." He waved his hand and the cage around Mephisto crumbling back to sand that rolled in a smooth wave and deposited him into Amaimon's arms.

Twenty-four hours of running. The journey seemed daunting. Rin stared into Amaimon's eyes and thought they held a little more regard for him than before.

He straightened, smiling and shaking the rest of the turmoil away.

"I'm ready when you are."

They began again, leaving the clearing of toppled spires behind.

* * *

How long they ran for, Rin couldn't track. His feet had bruised and healed so many times he'd grown numb to the pain.

Amaimon continued without any signs that the hours of running bothered him, his gait steady as he led them through the maze of spires.

Sand and shards had turned to hard ground beneath them before Rin noticed, the spires curving like they'd been wind blasted. Still, they kept on.

The passage of time was further obscured by the lack of any change in the dark sky and Rin had long ago stopped trying to figure out the distance they'd covered.

A new sensation started to steal his attention.

Hunger bit a hole into his stomach. Every now and then dizziness sent Rin's vision spinning.

He wanted to keep going. He had to stop.

"Amaimon!" Rin shouted over the wind that whipped past them, though he had to cough after not having talked for so long.

But Amaimon heard him, head twisting to the side as Rin gestured to halt.

Maybe, Rin thought with somewhat delirious humor, his example would teach Amaimon to extend the same courtesy the next time he wanted to stop.

"What?"

Rin huffed a breath, trying to recover quickly as his body trembled now that he'd broken his rhythm.

"Okay, we gotta stop, Amaimon," Rin said as he pressed a hand to the ache in his stomach, "I haven't eaten since last night and I think I'm seeing two Mephisto's right now because I'm so tired."

Expecting some resistance, Rin prepared to argue his case.

Amaimon shrugged, claw tapping to Mephisto's back, "okay, but not here, it's not secure."

It hurt to start running again, but, knowing it wasn't for long allowed Rin to do it without too much argument from his body.

The place they ended up in came out of nowhere, startling Rin when, one moment, they ran amongst rough stone, the next, a bowl in the ground, like someone had scooped with their hand, appeared in front of them.

Black spines made it seem like they hopped down into the maw of some great beast, and, when they reached the bottom, Amaimon drew his claws overhead, the spines thickening until their view of the sky disappeared.

Only a few slivers of space remained between the spines to light the domed hideaway Amaimon had created. The rest of the light came from the glow of their irises.

Mephisto ended up set by Amaimon's feet, not dropped for once, as Rin made it to the ground by the sloped wall and collapsed.

A poof reached his ears and Rin cracked his eyes he hadn't realized had closed to see Amaimon holding a bag of chips.

His stomach growled again, loud in the silence of the dome.

"You can have some, if you want," Amaimon said, holding the bag out.

Rin stared, mouth watering, before he said, slowly, "thanks, but please tell me you have real food, or at least a lot more than that on you."

The bag was pressed to his hands in a crinkle of plastic, Rin pouring the contents into his palm to devour, ravenous in a way he'd never been in his life, as Amaimon went over to Mephisto.

Now that he'd started, he might bite Amaimon's hands off if he tried to take them from him again.

He knew it too, if the smirk sent his way meant anything.

Another poof brought the scent of meat to Rin's nose and he snapped his head up, nostrils flaring to take more of it in.

His shoulders slumped in disbelief.

"Is that," hot saliva pooled in his mouth, "is that fried chicken?"

"Mmhmm," Amaimon nodded, bucket of chicken tucked in his hold as he dropped an entire wing, bone included, down his gullet, "but you can keep the chips if you like them so much."

The bag dropped, forgotten, to the ground as Rin made his way off the wall to the literal hot food Amaimon somehow had in his possession.

"What the actual hell even are your powers?" Rin mumbled, nearly vibrating with the need to sink his teeth into the meat and hoping Amaimon didn't try to tease him with it or he might try to punch him into a rock again.

Gaze flicking to Amaimon's let him see the way his eyes displayed the mirth his face didn't.

But it distracted Rin enough that he startled when the bucket was shoved into his chest and another- _another-_ appeared in Amaimon's.

"I got them for later when I was exploring Assiah," Amaimon explained, moving to sit besides Mephisto's body. Not that it explained how they were still steaming like he'd summoned them right from the restaurant, but Rin wouldn't be complaining.

He went back to his chosen wall, moaning at the taste of what he now considered the best fried chicken he'd ever had and ever would have again.

Exhaustion crept up on him a little while later, belly full and muscles twitching in the occasional shiver, even after they'd healed.

Despite everything that had happened, Rin felt good, exerted in a way he never had been before and proud of the things he'd learned that day.

"Hey," he said, drawing Amaimon's gaze from where he'd been having a staring contest with the wall, or been lost in his own thoughts, it was hard to tell without an expression to go on, "You didn't fight me like that in the forest or the amusement park. Why?"

Yeah, he'd been overwhelmed in the park, but that had felt more like a back-alley brawl, like the ones Rin got in with bullies.

Then, the forest fight. Rin had unleashed all the fire burning at his core on the demon that thought to challenge him, delighting in the flesh turned to blackened charcoal before his mind had gone under and things got hazy.

"I was playing, I didn't want to end the game too soon," Amaimon said, tongue winding over his fingers to get the last of the salty juices off them.

"And," he continued, glancing at Mephisto and biting at his thumb like he was debating something, "Samael asked me to."

Rin stopped breathing, jerking to look at the still body on the ground as he tried to understand what Amaimon had just told him and couldn't.

"He," Rin paused, it still didn't make sense, "he asked you to fight me, even though he knew all my friends- and Yukio and Shura and that bastard Angel guy- were there. He _asked_ you?"

"Yes." Amaimon met him with watchful gold eyes, leaned back on his palm with his leg outstretched and the other arm rested on the one bent to his chest, waiting.

It made sense, suddenly. Rin laughed, unable to respond any other way, and dropped his head back to the rock as the entire ridiculous path of his life took shape.

In the end, Rin concluded the same thing he'd known the second he'd heard that cheerful ringtone on a rainy, miserable day in a graveyard.

Mephisto was a bastard-

He opened his eyes, head rolling to rest on his shoulder to see a wary cast to Amaimon's face, a chuckle escaping him again.

-And he was still going to save his life.

"Cool." His short response made Amaimon blink, uncomprehending, and stilling as Rin got up and walked over.

"I'm gonna go to bed, thanks for the meal."

Rin bent to flick the button from Mephisto's cape-thing, ignoring the lip Amaimon lifted over a fang in confusion to tug it loose.

A few folds of his hand later and he'd turned it into a makeshift pillow, lifting Mephisto's head to tuck it back under and arranging his limbs so he looked more like he was deep in sleep than unconscious in a cursed coma.

Then he returned to the wall again, all without a word from Amaimon, and curled to get comfortable.

Well, as comfortable as he could on solid rock, but Rin was full and tired, so he would manage.

He drifted off, sleep claiming him from one beat to the next, and he knew no more.

* * *

Amaimon dropped his lip from where it curled over his fang, gaze locked on the steadily breathing form now sleeping by the wall.

He jerked his gaze down to Samael and a thin breath hissed between his teeth.

Rin's actions failed to make any sense.

Samael was _unconscious_. He couldn't _feel_ anything. He wouldn't care if Amaimon used him as a blunt weapon, let alone if his hair was in order.

And yet- his gaze flicked back to Rin- he had taken the one thing that could be used for his own comfort and given it to the only one of them who had no use for it without a moment's hesitation. Like it was the only logical thing to do.

It wasn't logical at all.

Just like Rin's reluctance to hurt him had been. He'd had no problems before, during any of their other confrontations. Had set his flames on Amaimon like he'd enjoy nothing more than to burn him straight to the core and keep going.

Now, it had taken Amaimon baiting him in every way he could think to before Rin had finally shown him a glimpse of that power that lurked within his body.

When that power had finally made its appearance, _oh_, how it had shone. Amaimon rubbed a hand to his chest that had taken the brunt of Rin's attack, remembering the bright blue fire behind those warping pupils as Rin bore down on him without hesitation.

He'd wondered if he would have to work double time to keep both Rin and Samael safe during their journey, especially with the handicap presented by the danger of discovery by Father if Rin used his flames.

Yet another thing to curse Samael for. Keeping Rin so ignorant of himself, so afraid, like the cowering worms he lived beside, like a wolf amongst sheep, predator amongst prey- it made Amaimon want to gnash his teeth to powder. Amaimon glanced down at Samael's still face, eyelids shuttering as he took in how he rested on his folded cape.

Catching the taste he'd had of Father's flames had sated a piece of him that had been growing bored and stale in the unchanged monotony of Gehenna. Even untrained and fallen to his instincts in a berserk mode, fighting Rin had kindled a spark in his core that he couldn't recall having experienced since Father had first possessed a vessel in Assiah and entered the playing field.

Of course, the delight of feeling the raw power concentrated in a physical form when Father arrived had quickly soured after he realized he'd chosen a side in Samael and Lucifer's war, swayed over by the human worm that had birthed Rin.

He hadn't understood it then and he didn't understand it now.

That was a game Amaimon refused to play, no matter the ways they both tried to bring him over.

Samael slept on, oblivious to the turmoil he caused just by laying there.

A section of tangled hair fell across Samael's face. Amaimon froze, staring.

Without his say, he watched his hand move, slow, as if it wasn't him controlling his vessel.

Then he watched black claws touch to the purple hair of Samael's vessel to slide through, tugging the knots loose and tucking it all behind his ear.

Nothing changed. Samael remained asleep. Amaimon understood Rin's actions about as well as he had before, which was not at all.

He went back to his vigil.

A sucker and one of the many manga Samael collected appeared in his hand to entertain himself with. He had no idea how long Rin would need to sleep for and couldn't bring Behemoth out to play or risk alerting other demons to their location from the noise.

Amaimon stroked a finger idly over the keychain he'd transformed Behemoth into, wondering if he should reintroduce Rin. That might be fun.

Then he flipped open the manga and started in on it.

Sucker rolling between his fangs, Amaimon tried to find what, in these particular books, captivated Samael so much.

Every one he'd read so far all carried the same pattern, no matter the genre or subject material. Some worm would have a problem, then that problem would get worse through a series of illogical events that seemed to have clear solutions- at least to him.

For instance, the one he currently read. Amaimon squinted at the book he held sideways, pulling it up to his face to try to see if the ink on paper would become clearer that way.

It didn't. Amaimon sighed, tongue curling over his sucker in absent patterns. Why not just kill the worm who kept interfering with them and their goal and be done with it?

Maybe- Amaimon glanced at Rin over the top of the cover- maybe he would ask Rin later when he woke. He seemed eager to explain things to Amaimon, even if his answers tended to create more questions.

Still, it was a much better response than when Samael tried to explain things to him, since his explanations tended to be long winded and diverged in too many directions without answering the original question at all.

And better than the responses various humans had tried to give him over the years, though theirs could get muddled over their terror of him when he just wanted a simple answer to something.

Hours passed in silence, only disturbed by the turning of pages as Amaimon brought out more from his borrowed collection of Samael's.

Every so often Rin would shift in his sleep. His eyes remained opened to slits and he'd begun to drool. Though, Amaimon noticed he'd wince and shuffle positions, uncomfortable on the hard ground.

Well, at least they weren't going through the magma fields that made up the other route Amaimon had considered taking. The noxious gases released in those fields made it annoying to sleep through.

More time passed and Amaimon wished he had Samael's abilities to speed it up. How long would Rin sleep? Surely being a nephilim and Father's spawn meant he shouldn't need to sleep as long as a human.

Rin snored, snuffling as he rolled over, and Amaimon had a sinking suspicion Rin slept exactly as long as a human. He resisted the urge to poke him awake. But barely.

Something scratched on the ceiling.

Amaimon reacted before the sound finished echoing. He snapped, books and food vanishing as Samael appeared back in his arms while Rin woke with a surprised cry

Screeching erupted, the demons ambushing them giving up their silence now that they'd been discovered and launching from the cracks in the obsidian spikes he'd left for air.

Slim, coiling fire-tar eels glistened in the dim light their eyes and mouths gave off as they sprang towards Amaimon.

This would be a little more difficult to do one-handed.

He slashed with claws extended into lethal tips, gutting the first eel to reach him and ignoring the blistering welts that rose where their magma ichor stained his fingers. The others in the patrol group were quick to scatter, knowing they stood a better chance as multiple moving targets than bunched together.

A passing thought had Amaimon listening to search for Rin as he avoided ichor shots from the eels and retaliated with a rain of obsidian shards. He grinned as one pinned the tail of an eel, preparing to finish the job.

Blue flashed in the dark and Amaimon thought it was a flare-up, wondering if he would be able to outrun Father or retreat to Assiah before he found their location.

It hadn't been Gehenna flame.

Rin blew past him, a dark blur that grabbed one of the eels from the air to crush its head against the wall in a splash of magma. Despite the pain, Rin already moved to the next of the patrol, snarl warping him face and blue eyes glowing in the pitch.

Amaimon didn't let the sight stall his own attack, knowing that would be a quick way to wind up incapacitated.

But…

His arm squeezed tighter to Samael, heart thudding once to his ribs as a wide grin took over and bared fangs extended to wedges.

The brief lessons had paid off, it seemed.

Now, no longer holding back, Rin showed a little more of the power he contained. While it was still rough and untrained-

Amaimon grunted and slammed the heel of his boot to the earth, a crevasse formed to swallow another two eels as another motion squashed them to paste between the sides.

-Rin without the mental blocks he'd placed on his power could _more_ than keep up with the beasts Gehenna held.

Not that it would let him survive in a fight against any of the Ba'al or even some of the more powerful demon lords and nephilim that existed. He would need his flames to make a difference at that tier of combat.

And, at that stage, even the demon lords and nephilim would fall to Rin's flames.

Only beings of Samael or Lucifer's levels might stand a chance at felling a fully-powered Rin.

Unsealed, a Rin unhindered by the controls the sword placed on his heart would have one match in strength.

Father.

When those two inevitably clashed, Amaimon would be there to witness it.

But it wouldn't be just yet. Not until Samael died or shook off his curse.

One eel remained, attempting to flee so it could report to Iblis of the intruders it had failed to destroy.

He sent spears to impale it into the wall, hearing Rin pant in exertion where he'd stopped over his last kill as Amaimon stalked up to the struggling body.

"Why has Iblis changed her patrol formations?" He asked without preamble.

Magma eyes rolled in the eel's skull, pain likely blinding it to his words. Amaimon flicked a claw to its head, seeing if that would get it to focus, "hey, I asked you a question, don't ignore me."

Rocks shifting behind him had Amaimon glancing to see Rin approach in cautious silence, coming to stand at his side and staring at the writhing eel. Was there pity in his eyes? Amaimon looked and saw none. Good.

"We don't know, earth king." He focused back on the eel as it spoke in a voice like lava spewing from the earth, cocking his head and waiting for it to continue. When it saw the answer hadn't been enough, it shook, magma ichor seeping from its mouth as its body tried to heal around the spears stuck through it.

"Our king hasn't told us- has only ordered us to attack and kill anything we find that does not belong," it said, a rasping gurgle accompanying the ichor, "and you and our prince do _not_ belong."

Interesting.

"We will not say any more, so do not ask."

No, he didn't think he would. It was enough. Amaimon killed the eel in the next moment, already gesturing to part a hole big enough to leap through in the ceiling and jumping to the outside.

Rin joined him after a squawk of protest, a glare on his face as he scrambled up from the lip.

Instead of the complaints he expected- though Rin let a few grumbles loose under his breath- Rin glanced back at the rest point they'd left, "hey, what was that? What did it mean, we don't belong? I thought demons all belonged in Gehenna?"

A fair- if surface level- point. Rin really was so very new to their world.

"Yes, but we are in Iblis' territory," Amaimon said, scanning their surroundings to see if any of the patrol had hung back and fled, "and we haven't been claimed as part of it."

"Claimed?" Rin repeated the word and Amaimon realized he wouldn't know what a claim was, either.

Nothing showed itself to his search, so Amaimon gestured that they continue, speaking so that Rin would hear him over the wind, "a demonic claim. It means Iblis has put a mark to all others that any who bear it belong to the king of fire. The kin of fire that patrol these lands wear that claim, putting them above their lesser kin."

"Woah," Rin said, eyes wide as he processed Amaimon's words, "but wait, I know Astaroth didn't care when I accidentally killed that soot sprite, but won't Iblis be upset that we killed these guys?"

Iblis would be upset no matter what. Amaimon grimaced, saying as much to Rin and already imagining the annoyance dealing with Iblis would be.

He could see Rin understood that about as well as he did anything concerning demons, which was not at all. But, before he could clarify, Rin asked another question.

"Hey, do you have any- uh, earth kin that you've claimed?"

That wasn't such a clueless question.

Amaimon hooked a finger to his belt, unlatching the keychain he had Behemoth on and raising him to eye level.

"My Behemoth."

Blinking with a flutter of lashes at the hand in his face, Rin studied the small Behemoth whipping from the string in the wind.

Then Rin exclaimed with shock, "oh! That's the demon you sicced on us in the forest! Is he the only one you have?"

What did he mean? Amaimon narrowed his eyes, nerves pricked as he put Behemoth back on his belt. "Yes, I don't want any more."

Curiosity answered his short response.

"But Iblis has a bunch right? Her patrols. Why don't you?"

A hiss made it over the wind, sending Rin startling back from him and the lip he'd raised to expose a fang.

"I don't want any more claims," he said in a growl, firm to make his point very clear.

But it didn't keep Rin away for long, his tenacity sending him to catch up to Amaimon again, though at least his next words were more subdued.

"Sorry, is a claim a personal thing? I didn't know."

Was a claim a personal thing? Amaimon wanted to laugh at the sweet naivety, mouth twitching with the humor that broke his irritation.

"Yes." They'd come to a wide gorge overlooking one of the inner rings of magma within Iblis' territory and were forced to stop. "A claim goes both ways and ties both parties together, though they're not limited to each other and can form more claims."

"Really? So what's the point of- ah! _Amaimon!_"

The shout of his name from Rin had Amaimon smirking and tightening his grip on the tensed body as he carried them over the gorge, knowing it would be too far to jump.

Humans had a word for the reactions Rin gave that Amaimon searched his memory for before recalling it.

Cute. Rin was cute.

Well, if nothing else, he would be able to entertain himself by eliciting more of those reactions from Rin.

He set Rin down on the other side, letting his claws prick into his waist just under a coil of tail and hiding the grin that wanted to form at the squeak it got out of Rin.

Yes. He would be very entertained, even if Rin never decided to change his mind about playing with Amaimon.

"Could you warn me next time?" Rin hissed, glaring with a slight blush on his cheeks.

That would cut back on his fun, but Amaimon suspected, even with the forewarning, he would still be able to pull interesting reactions from Rin.

"Okay," Amaimon shrugged, "didn't you have another question?"

They continued, the land changing to become hotter the closer they got to the center of Iblis' territory. A shimmer of heat rose off the sandy dunes that extended to the horizon line. Their cover would be limited here.

"Yeah," Rin said, earlier ire forgotten with the change in topic, "what's the point of a claim?"

What was the point to anything? Amaimon had yet to find one after millennia of thinking about it. But he didn't think that was what Rin meant by his question.

"A claim is a mark on your soul, a tether that shows something is yours," Amaimon said, guessing that, after showing Rin Behemoth, he couldn't see claims. The ability was probably another thing sealed along with Rin's heart.

Should he let Rin know the final part about the inner workings of a claim? He had seen that Rin both claimed and was claimed in turn by his own familiar- the cait sidhe. An instinctual thing, likely, since Rin clearly didn't know anything about them.

"It's rare for a claim to be completed between both sides- did you know you have one with your familiar?'

"What? Really? With Kuro?" Rin's confusion confirmed it. He had no idea. Amaimon was no longer surprised.

"Amongst the Ba'al, only two have ever had a completed claim bond- or allowed themselves to be claimed by another."

He waited, fingertips furling into the fabric of Samael's clothes.

"Er, who?" Rin didn't break pattern, bumbling through the unspoken barrier like it didn't exist to ask his question.

Something dragged inside Amaimon, though he couldn't place the emotion, fighting a scowl at the unwanted feeling in his gut.

"Samael," he said, the names tasting like ash on his tongue, "and Abduxuel."

Twin aspects. Their claims had glowed like a galaxy between them.

"They used to be bonded to each other."

"Oh." Rin's short word trailed off, eaten by the wind as he fell into silence. Amaimon wondered how long it would last before Rin started up again.

They had hours to go yet and an expanse of barren desert to cross to reach the inner ring where Iblis reigned.

Though that would all depend on how many patrols they crossed and when Rin would inevitably grow tired enough to want to sleep.

He'd just settled into a loping pace over the dunes when movement caught his eye in the distance. If he'd seen them, then they'd seen him.

He darted in, speeding up as fast as his vessel could go and sparing a brief splash of frustration that he couldn't warp to the location.

Then he landed amidst the patrol and attacked, thrusting his hand into the sand to direct it outwards in a wave.

Alarmed shouts cut off with a clench of his fist, destroying their humanoid vessels to leave them as red stains in the sand.

But not all of the demons had been caught in the wave.

Rin took care of those, a brutal takedown from one to the next that had Amaimon stepping back to watch, no longer concerned that the human-like vessels would make him hesitate.

It wasn't worth it to take more to question. The orders Iblis had given these demons would be the same no matter their rank.

So, Amaimon would enjoy Rin growing more confident in the basic techniques he'd taught him with each demon he faced.

Blood speckled Rin's face after a particularly savage exchange he'd emerged the victor from. But that had been the last of this patrol.

"Good," Amaimon said, giving another thumbs-up as Rin walked over to him, panting. It wasn't from being worn out by the fight, though, since Rin didn't display any of the physical symptoms or smells. Which meant he was panting from excitement.

"I think I'm getting the hang of this," Rin said, bright smile gleaming where it stretched over his fangs.

Amaimon nodded, smoothing his hand in a broad sweep to hide the blood and traces of their fight.

"You are."

"Awesome!" Rin cheered, and, by the way his shirt shifted around his torso, Amaimon knew his tail would be wagging.

Such a simple thing to be so happy about. It made Amaimon want to get his hands back on that tail and _squeeze_. He hid a pout.

"Why didn't you ask one of them about Iblis?" There was the question. He gave Rin his reasoning behind it, Rin accepting the logic easily, as if he trusted Amaimon.

Amaimon snorted inwardly at the idea, beginning their journey over the sands again.

The energy of Gehenna waned and night fell, the desert growing dim to Amaimon's senses.

Several more groups followed, the shape of their order working itself out with each new encounter, like a puzzle he fit pieces to.

Soon, it became a tug of war between those moving pieces and them, every time the formation took on more detail, they got closer to the center and the rate of encounter increased.

Rin shook, letting a body from the most recent patrol group tumble from his claws. This time, the scent of exhaustion accompanied the trembling.

"Amaimon-?"

He cut off Rin's weakened call of his name, "you can sleep again, come."

He led them a ways from their location, fitting it into the mental map of the territory and patrol groups they'd met in it to find a place that would have lower potential encounters.

Sand parted with his direction, smoothing out into a hollow cave in the side of a dune while Rin swayed on his feet.

Blue eyes blinked, shuttering as it took longer and longer between one and the next for Rin to open them again. His feet sank into the divots he'd lodged them in for balance, until, swaying too far, he fell and caught himself by his hands with a soft groan.

Amaimon frowned as he finished creating their rest spot for the night. They'd found Rin's limits, it seemed. No amount of training would change that he had the majority of his power separated from his body. Rin was still more human than demon and the balance between the sides was thrown off by that artificial barrier.

Lifting Rin by his collar got him the expected yelp of surprise that he ignored to bring him into the den. Then he dropped him to close the entrance as small as he could get it, a hard point sloping from the top to direct the sand to the side.

That accomplished, Amaimon set Samael to the wall opposite the hole, sitting next to his body while Rin started slumping where he'd been dropped.

This was new. Would Rin forego his usual arranging of Samael's body out of exhaustion?

Rin jerked his head up, tangled bangs moving against his face when he forced himself awake from the doze he'd entered.

It looked like the routine would continue. He watched Rin again make a pillow of Samael's cloak for him, carding his claws through his bangs that had started losing their luster with the creeping degradation.

"He's getting worse, isn't he," Rin said, his voice roughened to a low rasp that mirrored the solemn expression on his face.

"He is," Amaimon spoke the truth, head tilting where it pressed to the wall as Rin's lips flattened in a thin line. The iridescent sheen that covered the crown of Samael's hair had faded, becoming the mottled yellow of an old bruise.

The dark bags under Samael's eyes had deepened.

He had no doubt that, if he looked, more bruises would be scattered to various parts of his body as he rotted from within.

It had been awhile since he'd seen Samael reach that point of destruction.

Not since…

"You wouldn't happen to have any water, would you, Amaimon?" Rin's request stopped that train of thought.

Snapping brought out a few plastic bottles, Amaimon knowing Rin would need it after going so long without- a second thought had random food items summoned that he'd intended to snack on later. Now seemed as good a time as any.

Sure enough, everything disappeared in moments, Rin collapsing to his chosen wall and breathing deeply. Amaimon expected him to sleep, with the way he shuddered and closed his eyes.

"I can't imagine Mephisto letting anyone put a tether on him," Rin said in a low mumble, head bent so that his hair shadowed all but a thin part through the strands.

So, he did understand the claim and the weight it carried on a soul.

"You can choose to accept a claim or not," Amaimon said, rubbing his thumb to the sandstone beneath it, "I don't know if any of the others have accepted one in the past- they might have."

"Did," Rin hesitated, eyes opening to gauge him as he spoke, "did Abdu- er-"

"Abduxuel," Amaimon corrected with a sigh at Rin's incapability to remember a single name for longer than an hour until he'd had it pounded into his head, "and no, he didn't accept any besides Samael's, either."

Though he'd had more than enough claims of his own on the various creatures he liked to collect, both on Assiah and Gehenna, Amaimon muttered as an aside, long ago memories rising to the present with the current topic.

"Does Mephisto, too?" Rin asked, drawing Amaimon from the memories.

"Yes, but he's more selective," Amaimon said, not that Samael's collection made any sense. Why he found one particular creature worthy of a claim over another had always eluded Amaimon.

"How long ago did it all happen?" Wasn't Rin supposed to be tired? By the jaw-cracking yawn he gave, Amaimon knew that he was. Why, then, was he continuing to ask questions?

"Just before Father appeared," he answered anyway, wondering where Rin was leading to, "about a hundred years."

Rin snorted, though it was muted, "just before, huh? That's a lot of time for most people."

Most people didn't matter, Amaimon thought with narrowed eyes, about to say so when Rin continued.

"What was he like? Abduxuel."

Amaimon froze, tensing in his position until Rin opened his eyes again to give him a curious look.

What was he like? His mind went back, traveling the centuries like the branches of a tree to the roots hidden beneath the earth.

* * *

"Amaimon! What're you doing in this corner of Assiah?"

He glanced up from the food he'd purchased from a human store at the arrival of the powerful presence of Space. He'd been patient this time, waiting until he saw what the humans used as currency, then making it.

After Samael had lectured him on why he couldn't just drop a fistful of gold or whatever other gemstone they currently coveted onto the counter in exchange, he'd begun the practice.

"I'm bored," he said, popping one of the candies into his mouth as he stared into absinthe-green eyes that seemed perpetually amused no matter the occasion and hoped Abduxuel would have a cure for his boredom.

"You're in luck, king of earth," an arm wrapped around his shoulders as another reached to snag one of the snacks from Amaimon's pile. He growled, but let it be, knowing it was payment for Abduxuel's help, as he seemed to be offering.

"When's the last time you were on Assiah, anyway?" They walked at a human's pace through the crowded streets lit by bright flames that annoyed Amaimon, though not more than the humans themselves.

Smoke made it hard to see, the sting of it causing him to blink, not that it made the problem go away. His bones ached and the hand Abduxuel had at his shoulder pressed to the degradation that had spread there.

"I don't remember," Amaimon shrugged, a passing group of humans dressed in strange clothes taking his attention as he tried to calculate the years.

Had the humans changed their clothing preferences _again? _How was he supposed to keep up with them every time he visited?

A finger flicked at his cheek, drawing him back to Abduxuel grinning down at him beneath the blue curl of his bangs, "by the way you're dressed I'd say it's been awhile- though I'll leave the exact timing to Samael, huh?"

Abduxuel laughed at his own joke, jostling Amaimon into his chest. He put up with it, long having given up protesting the unnecessary contact.

"Let's get you into something a little more current, then see about curing that boredom of yours."

Exactly what he'd been hoping for when Abduxuel had found him on Assiah.

"You'll never guess what the humans have come up with this century!"

He was always…

* * *

"... Fun," Amaimon murmured, "he was fun."

He'd worn a shallow groove into the floor with the repeated rubbing he'd done there while lost in thought. The groove had stained red, he'd worn his skin raw.

"Samael always has a goal," he said, mentally shaking himself from far away times to focus on the present, "Abduxuel went along with them, but only when they entertained him."

Rin stared at him with unblinking blue eyes.

It took him long enough to speak that Amaimon wondered if he'd fallen asleep with his eyes open before Rin finally blinked and settled back to the wall.

"Gotcha. Thanks- for telling me- and talking about this. I know it's hard."

Hard? The statement confused Amaimon as much as Rin's strange mood did.

"I'm gonna sleep now, goodnight, Amaimon."

Once again, Rin had left him with more questions than answers.

Amaimon summoned his books again, sliding his healed thumb along the spine of one.

A single question rose above the rest, though this one he knew he'd never get an answer to.

What would Abduxuel have thought of Rin?

* * *

He'd been struggling off and on for an uncountable time ever since he'd woken to move parts of his body.

Other than bare twitches of his fingers, the usual slow blinks, and utterly meaningless tilts of his head that only showed him the same mind-numbing scenery, he'd failed.

Nothing! That brief hope he'd felt after lasting so long his previous waking faded with his energy, every attempt to escape crashing and burning.

And he was burning out, knowing, if he could move at all, it would be to tremble in exhaustion.

A silent gasp of rage tightened his throat.

A ripple in the water.

He wanted to scream bitter fury at the two beings who taunted him with their freedom, their ability to talk with each other or even just to themselves. To fight and mock and _move!_

_He wanted that freedom so much it __**ached**__._

But the moment he heard a voice come through in the silence, a yearning pushed past the bitterness so quickly he would have had whiplash if he could move.

"What's the point of a claim?"

The second voice. Such a foolish thing, so young, to ask a question like that. He wondered what the first voice's response would be.

"A claim is a mark on your soul, a tether that shows something is yours." Yes, a precise definition. He strained his senses to catch more. Was it his imagination or were the voices yet closer still? As if they were just beyond the first layer of clouds.

"It's rare for a claim to be completed between both sides-" The first voice cut out like a skipping record, making him huff an irritated breath, though that really just meant it came out slightly harder than the pathetic wisps he managed every other breath.

"Amongst the Ba'al, only two have ever had a completed claim bond- or allowed themselves to be claimed by another."

Why did the word 'Ba'al' spark familiarity in him? Like he should know it by more than a basic definition, like it formed some pillar of identity. Searching for the meaning turned up hollow emptiness. The same emptiness in his mind he was learning meant he should know some piece of knowledge, but that knowledge had been stolen to leave a hole where it should be.

It reflected the hazy emptiness of his surroundings. Bitterness welled up again. He no longer wanted these voices and the knowledge they taunted him with.

What good would it do, when his mind stayed stubbornly clear of any real information? The voices couldn't help him, were less real than the waters he drifted in, even. If their words were bare of anything that he could use, then they were _worthless_ to him in this cage.

As if to throw his words back at him, silence echoed his inner tirade.

The waters lapped at his cheeks, his heart thrummed in his ears.

The voices, they'd...

They'd stopped talking.

Wait.

_**No**_.

Come back- _come back!_

He couldn't take the _silence_.

His eyes widened, pupils flicking in vain hope that he would see something in the clouds. The water muffled his hearing until all he could make out was the endless gray and his pulse struggling in his veins.

Come back.

He wanted the deliberate teasing and dry wit of the first voice, he wanted the naivety and straightforward persistence of the second voice.

The sheer need to get those voices back covered a sound, a hesitation on a tongue.

His heart raced at hearing it.

They were back, his whiplash mood hadn't somehow led to their permanent banishment, and, now that he was less desperate, he wasn't sure why he thought his inner beliefs had the power to bring the voices to him or send them away.

But he heard the next word from the second voice, latched onto the single syllable like it was a lifeline.

"Who?"

A simple question, the gravity of it felt more than heard because the second voice seemed to enjoy asking things without any awareness of the severity they represented. It took him a moment to remember the question.

Claims, and two beings who shared one.

Because he was listening for the first voice so intently, it took him an extra moment to realize something else had changed.

Was it his imagination or…?

He thought he saw stars through the grey sky- but he'd always held more interested in the void between them than the lights themselves.

Something whispered on the water. A name.

It sounded like a _name_.

Was it his?

_ l_

No.

Not his.

He knew this with an intrinsic certainty he could never explain as he was now.

Then who?

Knowledge filled him like a single, clear stream of water, everything whiting out and his mouth gaping in a silent gasp, a scream.

_Twinaspectotherhalf__**mine**_

Space that went on forever, the deep void between stars to the ends of the universe, ever-present and all around,_ and the twin aspect of-!_

It fell away, unraveled. The other half of the equation, of who _he_ was, eluded him still. But at least he knew something more. That he had shared a claim with the aspect of Space, that he was his, belonged to him, to each other, though the idea of ever belonging to anyone rankled him to consider.

Somehow, he had accepted this being's claim.

More important than that, however, was that he existed at all. If he'd had a connection to another being, then he must also be real. He couldn't afford to believe otherwise, or what was the point of fighting in this cursed space?

The voices had gone silent again, but the bitterness he would have felt was softened by the knowledge that he was real and that they would be back.

And he'd lasted longer again, this time. Surely that meant his freedom was close at hand. he just had to uncover more about his other half, Abduxuel, and see if that would jog more names from his tattered memories-

Sleep began to take him, the stars vanished from the sky.

-Maybe, even the names of the two voices.

He slept.

* * *

"Yukio!" Banging on the door to his dorm suite. He considered jumping from the window to avoid the cause of it on the other side. Then he sighed, knowing it was futile, and opened the door.

"Yes, Shura?"

An arm slung itself over his shoulder to direct him back into his own room.

"You've been avoiding me, kid," Shura said, kicking the door closed behind her and leaving a dusty imprint. Another thing for him to clean later.

"I've been busy, as you can see," Yukio said in a cold mutter, bitter anger welling up at how carefree she acted.

Around him, the mess of half-packed boxes sent another tired pang of defeat through his heart. He moved to the nearest pile of Rin's things and went back to putting them away with efficiency.

Shura was silent behind him, and he knew she would be taking in the state of things.

"They're making you move out, huh," her voice came out with an undercurrent of her own anger.

"Yes, the Grigori have decided that it would be best if I lived closer to headquarters," he said and flicked a short gaze to see Shura watching him with hard eyes. Then he knew why she had come. "They're making you move, too."

A nod, "got it in one, kid. Said there was no reason to keep an exemplary exorcist like myself in such dingy conditions, especially considering my new position. So, they're giving me a swanky place downtown, got my own fridge and everything, no more communal kitchen and bathrooms for me."

He didn't respond. It was the same.

"What are you gonna do with Rin's things?"

Yukio _didn't_ freeze or show any reaction, taping the box closed with finality.

"They're going to have to go in storage." He'd had two options, throw Rin's things out, or find somewhere to store them. His bright new apartment in the city was still only big enough for one person's things. There wasn't any room for Rin.

"You're boxing him up?" Shura hissed the question, and this time, when he turned to her, he saw fury in her eyes.

"I have no choice," Yukio said, hard, as he moved back to his side of the room and the mess it had become, "they're sending people by later to help me move out."

"Dammit." Shura's cursing faded as she stared at the slowly vanishing signs that showed they lived there.

"I've got another meeting with Sir Lewin, later," he said as if from far away.

A sigh answered his words, "yeah, all the upper level exorcists are getting debriefed about something big today, but…"

She trailed off, the silence lasting long enough that he looked, then he noticed her tapping a finger to the back of her neck and pointedly not saying anything.

A contract of Morinath. She'd been sealed. As had he.

Nodding to show he understood, Yukio taped the last box, realizing he had less things than he'd imagined. His life fit into just ten boxes, most of it being bulky bedding or his textbooks.

"I'll catch up another time, Shura," he said, setting the tape down on the empty desk and meeting her solemn gaze.

"Yeah, okay," she murmured as she watched him a few more dragging seconds, then went to the door. She stopped, hand on the wooden edge, before she turned to look at him again, "he's gonna make it home, Yukio, don't give up on him yet."

He nodded and she left.

Rin? Make it home to them?

That was what he was afraid of, what he feared more than anything.

Yukio grit his teeth together until they ached.

If Rin returned, he didn't know if it would be a Rin he recognized.

If it would be Rin at all.

* * *

"Exwire Renzo Shima, we've got some questions you'll be answering for us."

Shima looked up into the shaggy fringe covering Lightning's eyes. Somehow, he still felt that gaze pierce into him through the mess.

He gulped, nerves sending a cold sweat to break out on his skin.

Faced down by the new director of the Japan branch of the Order, somehow, he still didn't feel any lessening of his anxiety.

Shura stared back at him from bewitching, lavender-hued eyes he would normally wax poetic about. But, from her position in the high-backed chair Mephisto usually sat in while he debriefed him, he couldn't seem to find the words.

"As an Illuminati spy you have two choices," Lightning continued with a cheerful tone from the side of the desk, "keep feeding the Order information, as you've done for Sir Pheles in the past, or lose any worth you had and we go back to square one with us torturing you for whatever information you haven't told us yet."

Right, the torture. Was is wrong to say he missed his demonic boss? Because, faced down with the brunt of the Order's wrath, he really, really did.

"Yup, sure thing, will do, no need to twist my leg about it," Shima said, giggling nervously as the smile on Lightning's face grew. It reminded him of Mephisto's.

"Great!" Lightning said, unfolding a tattered piece of notepaper he'd dug out of his back pocket that looked like it had seen better days to read from it, "let's see, Lucifer's nighttime routine, bathing habits, a picture of his tail- ah hah! Here we go."

He really hoped he wasn't actually expected to find answers to those first three questions.

"What do you know about the unsealed artificial Gehenna Gate and the light barrier now surrounding it?"

Fuck. They had to go for the hard questions first. He'd rather get a picture of Lucifer's tail.

The cold light in Shura's eyes when he went to look for mercy made it clear he wouldn't be getting any from her corner.

"See, here's the thing," Shima said, another nervous laugh accompanying his words, "he's gone!"

"He-?" Shura muttered.

Lightning didn't take that long to figure it out, head jerking back so that Shima saw his eyes, wide beneath his fringe, and smile dropped from his face.

"Lucifer is gone from Assiah?" The statement breathed out from Lightning, his words jolting Shura with realization.

"Er, yep, just, poof," Shima said and mimed a cloud of smoke with his hands.

"And they didn't explicitly tell you _not_ to reveal this information?" Lightning said as he recovered from the shock. Definitely faster than Shima had taken to recover once he'd heard from Homare what had happened.

What they had _said_ was that, 'Lord Lucifer had business in Gehenna to take care of,' and that, 'Homare will be in charge in his absence, continue your duties as usual, Shima.'

But, even Homare had looked shaken. Her hands had trembled as she told him to take his leave. Lucifer's chambers he usually rested in were empty.

"No, but they also didn't tell me anything else, so I'm as in the dark as you guys," Shima said, hoping they took him at his word and didn't decide to interrogate him anyway.

Two long gazes pinned him in place. He smiled guilelessly.

"Great! Thanks for your help, Renzo, you can skedaddle now."

He babbled some meaningless goodbyes and 'skedaddled', hearing, just as he left, Lightning say, "then Lucifer put the barrier in place, as we expected."

"He can drop the barrier at any point. We've got less time than we thought," Shura responded, grim.

Then, they revealed the information Shima had been dreading the moment he'd learned it, himself.

"The Gehenna Gate is open. Lucifer's got the key."

Yep, they were all screwed. He hoped Rin was having fun, wherever he was.

* * *

End notes: Uh, rip to everyone, I guess?

Ur half-right, Shima, Rin's kinda having a good time XD

idk how it happened but somehow my chapter length for this one chapter was more than the last 3 combined (:

Enjoy~ lemme know what you guys think :D


	5. Out of the Frying Pan & Other Euphemisms

**Out of the Frying Pan and Other Euphemisms**

**Summary:**

The boys get into some hot water with the king of fire. Amaimon is less than pleased when Iblis takes a certain interest in their prince and even more upset when they learn what their next step will have to be. In which there is a betrayal and more talking and Rin punches a sandworm in the face.

**Notes:**

Man I sure hope Iblis actually acts like this in the series or this is gonna be even more au :D

The usual fml's apply here as, somehow, this chapter reached 71 pages in the doc (: Also it's uhhhh 2:20 am but I was determined to get the the last 2 scenes out :D

Would you believe I'm almost done with nanowrimo? Bc with this beast I'm up to 40k words done for the month and next chapter is def gonna be another 20k'er.

...Which means this fic is likely gonna be in the 100ks by the time it's done. But I am not good at math so who even knows :D

Song of the Chapter:

Drumming Song by Florence and the Machine

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

**Chapter Text**

* * *

He drifted, feeling the aches and pains as shadows of themselves while he slept.

A thought made it through the cloud of sleep. When he made it home, Rin would sleep for a week- and maybe find a hot spring to soak in while he was at it, too. That faded away as he went further down, only two increasingly familiar scents filled his senses to let him know he could rest without fear that he was unguarded.

The ground he slept on rumbled, drawing him from the quicksand depths. Rin furrowed his brows, curling into a tighter ball as he fought waking.

"-in," a voice said, "Rin!"

Rin woke just as the earth shattered. He had a single moment to see wide gold eyes reflected across from him before something massive slammed to the sandstone cocoon again and it split.

Sand poured into the den, sending Rin's pulse racing as thoughts of suffocation under the ground filled his head. A hand grabbed his, Amaimon tugging him close and launching into the short ceiling before Rin could get a sound out.

Instead of running straight into the stone, sand parted into fine particles to release them back to the surface, freed from the prison the den had become.

He didn't need to, not having been deprived, but Rin gasped air into his lungs.

Amaimon dropped him, glaring at the still dunes around them and hissing, "we're not alone, Rin, don't get comfortable."

"What the hell was that?" Rin asked as he jerked his head to search for what had attacked them. He wanted to laugh, incredulous and a bit sleep deprived, as he realized that so far they'd been two-for-two in waking up to an ambush. He had a suspicion that pattern would only continue the longer they stayed in Gehenna.

"Sandworm." Amaimon's answer made Rin blink, trying to picture what that could possibly look like.

"Wha-"

Another rumble beneath the dune they stood on.

A pool-sized pit opened nearby and something screamed like super-heated glass shattering into splinters as it launched towards them. The super-heated glass turned out to be literal as Rin saw it swallow the sand in front of it, its core glowing to melt the sand into liquid.

White-hot glass spewed from the creature's mouth that Rin knew would sear the flesh from his bones if he let it hit.

No hesitation. Not anymore. Rin snarled, ducked the wave of glass, and met the attack.

His fist slammed into the face of a creature the size of a school-bus, halting its momentum with a booming impact that echoed over the dunes.

He followed through, spinning around to kick hard enough to break whatever passed for bones in what revealed itself to be a giant sand-colored demon whose mouth contained circular rows of fangs the size of Rin's body.

Those fangs pointed inwards down into the cavernous gullet of the creature that Rin caught a glimpse of before his kick sent it face-first down the long drop into the gully between dunes.

It reached the bottom with a crash and a long shriek as it writhed in the sand, tossing up an obscuring cloud while Rin readied himself to go down and finish the job.

"Ahahaha!" Rin flinched at the unexpected bright laughter, in the middle of jerking towards Amaimon. Fangs gleamed from a wide smile and delight shone on Amaimon's face as he gripped him in his claws and spun Rin by the shoulders.

"Magnificent!" The praise took a minute to register and Rin's heart stuttered in his chest as he realized Amaimon was happy with his takedown of the sandworm. But, before he could say anything, Amaimon left him, claws ruffling through his hair in a final rough pass as Rin watched him launch down into the gulley.

The dust cloud had cleared to reveal the sandworm recovering at the base, but it never got the chance to attack, Amaimon landed on its body with the force of a small bomb, the seismic shock reaching through the sand all the way to where Rin stood.

There was no coming back from that.

Rin's cheeks heated in a blush, still staring down at the rising figure from the corpse of the sandworm. He didn't think anyone had shown such excitement over his accomplishments since he'd learned to cook- and the failed attempts at getting his first job.

His hands clenched, squeezing, as he waited for Amaimon to float back to the top of the dune.

Amaimon grinned at him when he made it, his usual impassive expression broken by Rin and- he suspected- the fall to crush the sandworm. He'd have to remind himself to show Amaimon more rollercoasters in Assiah. Though, he hid a snort of amusement, he might get some freaked out people when Amaimon tried to "surf" the coasters again.

Hinging on if they survived and got back to Assiah, of course. But Rin refused to believe otherwise.

"You didn't hold back!" Amaimon said, nearly vibrating as he reached Rin and set down in the sand.

The enthusiasm had Rin releasing a laugh of his own, rubbing the back of his head and covering where the phantom touch left by Amaimon had been, "no, I think I learned my lesson, you make a good teacher."

Now, Amaimon's smile turned smug, "I know."

Rin didn't begrudge him the response, knowing how much pride he took in his own skills at cooking.

"Hey," Rin began as they continued, "will you teach me more?"

Slit pupils focused on him over Amaimon's shoulder, slivering with alertness, "you want to play with me?"

Play? "It was fun, fighting with you," Rin admitted, remembering the thrill of it once he'd gotten past the frustration of being so outclassed when it came to technique, "when we get back to Assiah we should fight again."

Those eyes had begun to glow with an inner light as Rin spoke and he wondered if he should have stuck to the request for more fighting lessons. Was it his imagination or had Amaimon just shivered?

"Yes! And you can use your flames when we play," Amaimon said, looking like Rin had just handed him his birthday and Christmas gifts early. Which, Rin understood exactly what he was feeling. After getting a taste of going all out and then realizing Amaimon not only wanted it from him, but actively encouraged him when he surpassed those limits, Rin had a realization of his own.

Even if things went back to the way they were before the whole catastrophe that was their current situation and Rin had to contain himself in his classes again, he could have a new outlet in Amaimon. All the excess energy he built up over the slog of schoolwork wouldn't have to be released in fidgeting or daydreaming or the million other ways he tried to burn it away.

With Amaimon, Rin wouldn't be bored.

"Only if you use your powers, too," Rin said as his own excitement welled up inside. Suddenly, he had something more to look forward to when they fixed Mephisto.

If anything, his request only made Amaimon look even more pleased.

His tail twitched in an aborted wag and Rin wondered if Amaimon's might also be showing signs of his mood where it was hidden beneath his maroon coat.

What did Amaimon's tail even look like? It hit Rin, then, that he didn't know. Was it like his? His gaze flicked to Mephisto, the same curiosity rising.

He opened his mouth to ask-

-Wait. Rin paused, halting that train of thought in an inner screech. He definitely couldn't ask Amaimon about tails. His tightened around his middle because he just knew Amaimon would try to turn it into a teaching moment and it would more than likely be hands on.

And, while Amaimon was improving in the personal boundaries aspect of his interactions with Rin, the lure of getting to mess with him about that particular aspect of demons would probably be more than he could resist.

Oh god. Rin's heart sunk in his chest and a shudder went through him.

Was Kuro's tail sensitive like his? Had he been bad-touching his familiar whenever he pet him? Kuro hadn't seemed like he was reacting to it any differently than a normal cat, so he definitely couldn't have, right? Rin wanted to bury himself in the sand until he got the mental image from his mind. Maybe Amaimon could do it for him- after he got done laughing at the reason for the request and Rin died on the spot out of sheer embarrassment.

"We're entering the inner territory soon," Amaimon's voice distracted Rin from thoughts of throwing himself down one of the dunes, "I won't be able to use my powers there."

"What? Why?" Rin asked and got a blank look back.

"Iblis will sense my aspect changing things that close to the center- as it is in any of our territories."

He couldn't imagine what that must feel like, to sense things on that level. The more he learned about demons, the more alien they seemed and the less like the beings he remembered the priests of his church droning on about.

Sure enough, on the horizon in the distance, Rin could see another wide gorge. His stomach dropped and twisted inside him as he remembered the last one they'd crossed. At least he'd be ready this time for when Amaimon had to carry him over.

Tension stiffened his body as they set down at the edge and Rin tried not to show any hints of his nerves. But, instead of an arm around the middle, Amaimon glanced at him.

Then he leapt, free-falling down the side of the vertical cliff-face.

"What the hell- Amaimon!" Rin shouted at the rapidly shrinking figure as he tried to figure out what was going on.

Amaimon grinned up at him, then pulled his legs towards his chest and, in a sharp motion, kicked off the side of the wall to launch like a shot right over the magma river at the bottom to the other side.

The acrobatics, the lack of caution, the care-free joy Amaimon showed…

Rin's lips twitched in a smile, heart thudding with preemptive adrenaline as he stared down the long, long fall to the bottom, knowing, if he messed up, he'd be in for a world of hurt-

-It sent his pulse racing. He spread his arms and dropped off the ledge.

A crow of exhilaration escaped his mouth, the wind rushing past swallowing it and muffling everything else as he left safety behind.

Rin turned midair and mimicked Amaimon, kicking off the rock wall with jarring force because he knew if he didn't give it his all he'd be finding out very soon how resilient he was to black flames.

Heat seared beneath his body, even though he was still a good few meters from the deep purple magma. The danger left him breathless, moving on instinct to flip near the end and touching down in a skid of his shoes to the other side.

Laughter bubbled from his chest, giddy with his success as he looked at Amaimon.

"That was fun!" Rin said to the toothy grin Amaimon bared at him as he stood, shaking with the after-effects of the fall.

"Can you make it to the top now?" Came the semi-teasing question.

"Can you, carrying Mephisto?" Rin sniped back, grinning wider and leaping as high as he could before Amaimon could reply. He latched his claws into the hardened magma-rock for only as long as it took to use it like a springboard to further propel himself to the ledge.

He made it, waiting for Amaimon to arrive and taking the chance to look at the land they were about to go through next.

It was less barren, not that Rin could guess if the things he was seeing were plants or if they might have been once upon a time. Pale lights as if from captured flames lit the tops of old magma pillars, like candles randomly interspaced over the ground.

As if paired together, tree-shaped things rose above the candles, so dark they seemed to absorb the light of the flames beneath them so that Rin couldn't make out any defining features. A scuff of boots came beside him as Amaimon appeared took him from contemplating the scenery and how weird it was.

"They feed off the constant flames," Amaimon said, the non-sequitur making Rin cock his head with a questioning sound until Amaimon gestured to the trees, "it's an energy source. When they live long enough, they gain sentience, so we should be watchful."

"How old?" Rin asked as they started in.

"A thousand years."

The answer sent a pang through Rin as he looked at the still forms they ran past, massive boughs shielding them from the sky, "oh, that seems… sad, that they'll live that long only for us to kill them."

Amaimon snorted, "don't pity them, more will be born, live, and die for the rest of eternity, why does it matter how old they are? The cycle will continue forever or something new will take their place."

In one sense, Amaimon was right, and Rin knew eternity must look very different from his perspective. But he couldn't shake the feeling the deeper they went into the dark forest. He didn't have the words to argue his case, though, so let it subside for the time being.

All that was left to do was the same rhythm they'd kept before, with the added obstacle of dodging past trees and ducking under low-hanging boughs.

One scratched Rin's hair when he hadn't ducked far enough, pulling strands free in a sharp pain as Rin winced, forcing himself to focus on the route.

But that focus fought him, his attention directed in another path.

This far away from the dunes, their every move seemed magnified, especially now that the winds across the crests didn't muffle sound. It set Rin's nerves on edge, the weight of the trees pressing down on him as their surroundings seemed to darken. Who knew what hid behind the shadows cast by the flickering flames and the even deeper shadows between the trees.

"Hey," Amaimon's voice, loud after so much silence, shocked Rin from the anxiety drilling into him, "don't do that."

"Do what?" Rin managed to say, ears flicking. Had that been a snapping twig in the distance? Were they being ambushed again? His fangs lengthened in his mouth and claws on his fingers, eyes beginning to glow beneath his brows as he bowed his head, searching.

A prick of claws at his nape stopped him cold. Amaimon had vanished from his sight.

"Don't act like prey."

Rin shivered at the breath ghosting over the tip of his ear, Amaimon a heated weight against his spine where he stood too close-!

Amaimon tightened his fingers.

Without his say, a low growl started in Rin's chest and his lips lifted in a curl over fangs. He straightened his spine, no longer hunched to get away from Amaimon but pressing to him. At his arm, he felt Mephisto's body, cold, despite the layers of his clothes.

"Good." That overpowering presence left him, Amaimon walking back to the lead and scanning Rin as if searching for more signs that he was prey. Rin met his gaze.

Nodding to himself, Amaimon went back to running. "This forest will try to make you prey- make you stupid- which gets you dead."

"Why?" Rin asked, the eerily beautiful forest taking on a grimmer light, though he hadn't thought that was possible.

"Lost souls," Amaimon said, shrugging as if that wasn't a little bit horrifying. But Rin wouldn't be prey, so he let the knowledge roll off him, accepting it. "They make the fires brighter, which feeds the trees and makes them stronger than the competition."

"What happens if that they get stronger? Do they get, er, smart faster?" He didn't think smart was the word Amaimon had used but it was close enough.

"In a way," came the hummed response, "they survive to the thousandth year, taking over the weaker trees and latching to their roots- that gets them access to their soul-fire and prevents another from taking it."

He waved a hand at one of the trees they were going towards that Rin was just noticing had broader branches than the rest, multiple soul-fires beneath it like they were trapped in a possessive embrace.

"So don't die here, got it," Rin murmured, wary awe in the face of the insidious nature of the forest.

They lapsed back into silence, the conversation and events that led to it going through Rin's mind. Then, Rin had to hide a wry laugh because the whole thing had basically been some kind of warped mirror of all the times Shiemi had explained various plants to him while he tried to remember terms he knew he wouldn't, given an hour.

Weird, but not in a bad way. If anything, it was funny that a fearsome being like Amaimon shared something in common with someone as kind and utterly opposite in personality as Shiemi. He tucked the thought away and amused himself with his surroundings.

Despite the caution they took in their path, the forest seemed as barren as the desert had been and Rin couldn't help the edge it set his nerves on. He hadn't been in many forests in his life, but he could have sworn there was more in them than the plants.

"Amaimon, why aren't there any demons here besides Iblis', it feels like nothing lives here," Rin said as he caught up to Amaimon, getting a side-long glance from the corner of his eyes.

"You noticed," he said in acknowledgment, frown tugging at his lips, "the fire-tar eel told you earlier.

It had? Rin tried to remember back to that ambush that felt so long ago, even if it had only been the first night, "er, something about us and not belonging?"

A nod for his efforts, "yes, Iblis wasn't playing, the order to the patrols is to eliminate every creature that doesn't carry a claim."

He didn't understand. Then he did, ice striking a cold spear straight through his ribs as he gasped, jerking his head to the passing landscape.

"No way," he whispered, eyes wide as he looked to Amaimon for confirmation, "they killed everything else in this whole place? The whole territory? Why?"

For some reason, Amaimon stayed nonplussed, the eradication of every creature that couldn't escape the territory not bothering him in the slightest. Rin had to fight another shiver, Amaimon's alienness rearing its head once again.

"We'll find out when we get there," he said instead, eyes open to half-mast and face devoid of expression.

Rin couldn't find anything more to say to that revelation, wondering, again, what it meant when someone like Amaimon helped him- helped Mephisto, owing him a favor or not.

They were forced to slow at the thickest part of the forest, the center, Amaimon informed him, looking irritated for reasons Rin suspected had to do with not being able to use his abilities like he wanted to.

Branches caught at their hair, Mephisto's already hopelessly tangled with twigs that had broken off and gotten stuck there. Rin winced, knowing he and Amaimon didn't look much better. Already his body had healed scratches from his cheeks and he had to resist the urge to just start burning things after he almost got stabbed in the eye for the millionth time.

At least he didn't suffer alone, Amaimon had that blank expression back on his face but Rin thought he saw him snap a branch in his path with a little more force than necessary after another had poked into his ear.

The forest stayed silent besides their path through it, though, and Rin almost wished something would attack them again, anything to break the chill that spread in the air despite his inner flames and the flames of the soul-fires.

When he'd thought of Gehenna- the few times he actually had- he'd always thought it would be filled with the creatures that had been damned. Multitudes crawling over each other, screams, souls trapped for eternity. Then, once he'd had the existence of actual demons and the truth of Gehenna revealed to him, his perception had lost some of that horror. Had shifted.

In his head, Gehenna had become filled with creatures like Kuro. Sure, creatures like the naberius also existed in the Gehenna of his imagination, but the landscape had changed the more he learned about demons.

Seeing this, though- Rin rubbed at his chest, not liking the heaviness that weighed on it- Gehenna wasn't supposed to be empty.

"Please tell me we're almost through this place," Rin muttered as they made it to a hill rising from the ground, having to crawl their way up the side as dirt and grit skittered under their hands to the bottom.

Was it his imagination or was the dirt wall taking longer to climb than he'd noticed at first? Soon, the dirt he clawed at grew to larger stones, tumbling in noisy echoes that he knew no one but they heard. Loose stone became larger boulders, the texture turned to hardened bubbles that had burst and froze like that.

Their climb took them higher still, until, with a last scrabble they broke the treeline and Rin gasped.

His limbs locked in place as he twisted to stare around him, taking in the horizon.

"Amaimon," he said, "are we climbing a volcano?"

"Yes."

Of course they were. Iblis was king of fire, why wouldn't they be climbing a volcano?

As if remembering something, Amaimon blinked down at Rin, "oh yes, we're almost there."

Bastard. Rin felt like laughing, unsure if Amaimon was being deliberate in his teasing this time or really had just registered Rin's question and equally as unsure which was the funnier option. Also, did he know the 'are we there yet?' joke or would Rin get to be the one to teach it to him on their journey?

"Can we at least jump the rest of the way?" Rin said in the hopes that their hours of scrabbling through the underbrush were over.

Amaimon shot what Rin was pretty sure was another irritated look back at the trees, an affirming grunt on his tongue before, with a flex of his claws, he flung himself up the long path to the lip of the volcano.

Out of the trees and ascending the rest of the mountainside meant the winds carrying purple miasma once again blew against Rin and bringing strange scents he couldn't place. Were the things he caught on the wind because they were in Gehenna or because all volcanoes happened to smell that way? It was an idle curiosity, one he didn't really care if he got an answer to. But Rin realized it might be fun to see the volcanoes that existed on Assiah too.

Now that he'd gotten a taste for it, Rin wanted to keep exploring. It might even be fun to take Amaimon with him, if he didn't just vanish again once everything was said and done.

A last heave of his arms brought Rin to the top in a breathless rush, heart pounding at how high they'd risen. At this height, looking out over the rim they now stood on, Rin could see _everything_.

The spired obelisks they'd traveled through were only the barest suggestion he had to strain his vision to pick up, knowing it would be impossible for human eyes to see unaided. Then, the barren desert, stretching for miles around until it merged with the beginnings of the soul-fire forest and finally the dark branches clawing at the base of the volcano.

He turned and forgot about where they'd come from.

Because there was the center of Iblis' kingdom nestled within the cone of an active volcano. Magma bubbled up from gaping rents in the crust to let lava flow like glowing rivers until they disappeared into tunnels and crevasses at the edges.

"Woah," Rin whispered, unable to take his eyes away from the behemoth in the center.

A sigh broke Rin from the dark, logic-defying tower that rose above it all.

"Iblis likes presentation," Amaimon said, chewing at one of his black claws with a decidedly unimpressed gaze.

The sudden burning desire to see what Amaimon's kingdom looked like took Rin by surprise but, before he could ask him, he nodded towards the tower in a short gesture, hand falling from his face as he leapt off the rim.

Rin didn't even bother getting upset this time, jumping after Amaimon without hesitation. Just like before, the freefall sent his heart soaring in his chest and he had to fight the laughter that wanted to burst out. Though, given the way he and Amaimon had just sent several deep cracks into the ground from their impact, Rin didn't know that his laughter would be any louder or more likely to draw attention to their arrival.

But Amaimon didn't waste time, standing and striding over the empty base straight up to the looming entrance to the tower.

Before Rin could wonder how they were even going to open doors that big, Amaimon pressed both palms on either side of the seam and pushed. Dirt shoved up under his boots and Rin saw him glare with narrowed eyes to the place between his palms that parted in a wrenching groan.

That answered that question. He couldn't help the curl of awe as doors the size of a small skyscraper opened up to Amaimon's steady strength. Then he realized that he also had that ability, that natural power he'd always struggled with until he'd learned where it stemmed from- then he had other struggles to contend with.

Amaimon didn't bother pushing the doors open the whole way, walking past the threshold as Rin followed, eager to see what the inside of an actual castle in Gehenna looked like.

His eyes adjusted to the transition from dark to light and Rin paused, startled by what he saw.

Everything inside was modern, clean, well-lit, almost nothing like what the outer appearance suggested. Rin didn't know if he would have preferred an intimidating, creepy castle or what he actually saw, which was more like a high-end office somewhere on Assiah.

"Er," Rin muttered as he caught up to Amaimon, "this doesn't look like what I expected at all."

Amaimon flicked a short gaze around the room, "Iblis likes presentation, but Iblis also likes efficiency and order."

Efficiency and order. Rin knew plenty about that from living with Yukio. In fact, Yukio would have probably fit right into a place like this. Somehow, looking at Amaimon, he thought it suited him about as well as it did Rin.

Doors- these much more modestly sized- opening at the far end of the foyer had Rin snapping towards the sound. Who or what would greet them from those doors? Iblis? Or more of the patrols? Would they have to fight?

Don't act like prey. Rin straightened his shoulders, mirroring Amaimon's firm pose and calming his racing heart even with the anticipation pouring through his body.

The doors parted and the figure of a man walked through.

And he seemed furious.

Or, not furious, but hateful. Rin prepared for an attack.

Cold gray eyes scanned them as he neared, lips thinned on a dark face beneath thick black hair. He wore the uniform of the Illuminati and Rin had to stop an instinctive growl at seeing it, reminded of the labs and the bastards that ran them- and reminded of Lucifer.

"Amaimon, king of earth," somehow, the syllables of his name from the demon could have been spat and they would have been less loathing. Those cold eyes drew to Rin and something in them changed. He didn't know if he would have preferred the hatred because the look boring into him had his hackles rising, the urge that formed within him to show the demon trying to intimidate him who he was messing with.

"And my prince," the demon finished, and, looking like it pained him, bowed his head, gesturing to the doors he'd come through, "my king awaits you."

Amaimon snorted, sneering down at the demon without responding to his greeting at all and stalking past him as if he owned the place. Taking his example, Rin fell into step beside him, though he kept his guard up because he could tell this demon would have no problems striking in a moment of weakness.

Elevators were the next thing to greet his eyes beyond the doors and Rin grimaced.

Great, this would be the world's most awkward elevator ride in existence. The scent of the demon in the enclosed space with them put Rin on edge and he hid the fangs he couldn't stop from extending behind his lips. Amaimon ignored the demon like he wasn't even there and Rin wished he could achieve that level of disinterest.

It couldn't end soon enough, but apparently they were going to the top floor. Rin held himself from darting through the doors as they slid open, tracking the demon as he led the way this time.

Then the room revealed itself to Rin and he had to fight another gasp.

His attempts failed and the small sound in the chambers seemed as loud as if he'd shouted.

"Iblis, king of fire," Amaimon spoke, not bothering to acknowledge Rin's shock, focus turned to the one who owned this tower, the one who's territory they had just fought through for two nights and who's information they needed now.

"Amaimon, king of earth," gray, slit-pupiled eyes stared down as if the demon they belonged to couldn't make up their mind about whether to set them on fire or welcome them in further. That gaze met Rin's and the fire sparked in them, energy dancing in the depths.

A smile filled with delight stretched full lips on a face Rin couldn't look away from.

He couldn't look away because if he did then he would have to look at the rest of Iblis' body.

And if he did that, then Rin might self-combust.

"Awar, leave us."

"Mother!"

Rin tore his gaze from Iblis, eyes widening as he registered the word and what it meant.

"Now, Awar."

The demon- Awar- left after a final growl of frustration and vicious glare their way. Then, they were alone.

When his gaze found Iblis' again, Rin gulped, seeing the smile hadn't faded.

"My dark prince," Iblis purred, rising from the high-backed seat that centered the room to lean towards them, a gleam of gray eyes and glinting fangs pinned to him, ignoring Amaimon entirely.

"Though perhaps not so dark anymore," Iblis raked an appraising gaze over his body in a way that left him feeling exposed, picked apart, stripped bare, "your flames burn beautifully at your core."

He blushed. Beautiful?

Iblis crossed powerful arms over an ample chest covered in fabric that _really_ didn't cover anything. A bared midriff showed defined muscles that led to another thin strip of fabric trailing down to just above knee-high heels displaying lean legs- and _why_ was he still looking at those legs, oh god, he was going to die in this throne-room.

Because Amaimon had completely failed to tell him that Iblis, _king_ of fire, was a girl, one who wore about as much as Shura did.

"Amaimon," she said once she'd finished taking Rin in, letting him recover from his short-circuit in peace, "what happened."

Back to the routine, one Rin still couldn't quite believe was a part of his life now.

Was Amaimon scowling at him? Rin wanted to hunch under the look Amaimon set on him, not understanding what he'd done wrong.

"Samael is cursed, Rin stole him from the humans before they could dissect him," Amaimon began the run-down, "it's the King Killer. We've been to see Beelzebub and Astaroth already and were directed to you to find out more."

"And," Iblis said in a drawl that seemed faintly mocking to Rin, "what did you hope I could do about it?"

Electric tension filled the air and Rin knew it wouldn't be like with Astaroth. If they fought, he wasn't going to be able to grab Mephisto and run for it. And, thinking about it, he didn't want to run, anyway. Where would he go? The only option he had now was to fight with Amaimon, with or without his flames.

"Astaroth said you may know who the other amongst us was who has been cursed and survived," Amaimon said, slow and even from a placid expression that brought to mind a reptile waiting to strike, "do you?"

Gray eyes widened at that, then narrowed, "you're trying to cure him? Cure Samael?"

Amaimon didn't falter, holding his expression, "yes. Can you tell us or not?"

But Iblis only hummed, taking her time answering, "and both Beelzebub and Astaroth have witnessed this- spoke with you and our prince- and sent you to me?"

He glared, not bothering to repeat himself, Rin guessed, only crossed his arms and waited.

"Interesting," she said as a dark smile scrawled its way over her face. Rin hid a shiver at it, forcing his hands to stay steady at his sides so he didn't dig claws into his palms like he wanted to.

"So," her tone slid like a needle past the defenses Rin kept up, testing for weakness, though it stayed directed at Amaimon, "you're helping Samael?"

This again. Every time it was the same. The other kings trying to determine which side Amaimon was on because he had decided to help Rin help Mephisto. He could see Amaimon tense, his body going so still Rin thought he resembled one of the stone obelisks.

"I owe him," came the same non-explanatory response Amaimon had given Rin, Beelzebub, and Astaroth.

But it got a knowing, almost cruel smile from Iblis that spoke of something Rin couldn't place.

"If he died, you _wouldn't_ owe him," Iblis said with a wider stretch of lips that let the points of her fangs peek out. Rin hid his flinch with pure force of will. "There's another reason but I'll let you be vague about it."

She was right, that was one of the things Rin had been thinking about each time he'd heard Amaimon's answer. He still didn't know what really motivated Amaimon into pulling he and Mephisto from that alleyway, into not just leaving them to the Order's mercy.

"If he lives, he'll owe _me_," Amaimon glowered, features hardening yet further. Rin's breath caught, surprise shaking him. That was the most explanation Amaimon had given to any of the demon kings when they'd asked him that question. He still wondered if it was the whole truth. Didn't think that it was.

Not if the scoff Iblis gave it meant anything, "of course, and you've always been so keen on gathering favors in the past."

Now, Amaimon hissed, his flimsy mask of calm breaking, and Rin could see he just barely kept from baring his fangs as he repeated his words, "will you give us your answer or not, _Iblis?_"

Was it Rin's imagination or had the temperature started to rise?

He held his breath, waiting for the snap to come, for violence to erupt and-

"Ahah-ha!"

Laughter, sharp and bright cut through the tension in a slice of a cold knife, heat vanishing from the room like the breath that rushed out of Rin's mouth.

"Wonderful, Amaimon," Iblis said between laughs while Rin gaped between the two of them, completely lost and wishing things would maybe make sense again sometime soon.

Amaimon huffed, body now lax like he hadn't been seconds from springing at Iblis as he slumped back on his heels to pull a sucker into existence and stuck it in his mouth.

Okay, Rin couldn't keep silent anymore, "wait, _what?_ What just happened?"

A raised brow from Amaimon and a beaming smile from Iblis set Rin off-kilter. He wanted to start shaking people again.

"This is the most interesting thing that's happened since Father appeared," Iblis said as if that explained anything. Although, knowing Amaimon and Mephisto as he was beginning to, maybe all it took to understand the politics between the demon kings was if something was "interesting" or not and what they each considered to qualify.

"I'll give you what I know, Amaimon," she continued, hand cocked on her hip and the other idly brushing along the thick black braid she'd tossed over her shoulder.

Something about the movement drew Rin's gaze, much as he wanted to blush and avert his eyes from the shadows beneath the folds of her sheer clothing. Then he blinked as it hit him. Where even was her tail? How was she hiding it? His own ached as if reminding him he had one and was pissed at being wrapped up for so long. He couldn't do anything about it, though, so he just grit his teeth and hoped they could get out of the room soon.

"You're not going to like it," Iblis said but, at Amaimon's nod, continued, "Astaroth must have believed I would know more because our dear Lucifer may have told me, yes?"

"He did," Amaimon said simply, tonguing at the sucker and shrugging.

The sly grin on her face answered Amaimon, "you know as well as we all do that there's only one who Lucifer honors with his secrets- well, now that he and Samael are at odds, at least."

An annoyed grumble came from Amaimon as he scowled at the far wall, "and you know why I wanted to avoid that."

"I can think of several reasons, yes," Iblis said in a light tease, so different from the cruelty she'd displayed earlier that she could have been a different person entirely, "but, some good has come of this venture of yours."

Some good? Rin cocked his head, about to ask what she meant.

A clawed hand caressed his cheek, edges scraping over his rapidly heating skin as Rin squeaked at the sudden touch.

"You've brought our prince to see me," Iblis said with delighted purr, her other hand coming up to cup Rin's face as she tugged him to examine him from all angles, "I wondered if I would ever get to meet him before everything was said and done."

Oh god, Rin bit back a whimper. This close, her scent enveloped him, the heat she exuded higher than normal, feeling like his did, almost, but so much more apparent because it was coming from a body other than his own.

His ears twitched as a crunch pierced the room and he twisted his head to the side, cheeks squishing because Iblis hadn't let go yet, to see Amaimon had bit down to break his sucker apart in a sharp crack.

"I had to," Amaimon said, tone short. Was he irritated?

"Had to?" Rin tried to say, muffled by Iblis' hands, though with his question she'd begun running her fingers over his brows and through his hair. He shivered at the sensations, pulse picking up.

"Yes," okay, he wasn't imagining the undercurrent of a growl from Amaimon, "the worms were going to execute you. Assiah wasn't safe."

Right. Yeah. Rin dropped his gaze, a cold wash of reality catching up with him as he remembered what waited for him back home if he didn't succeed here.

Iblis sniffed, one of her fingers having taken to rubbing along the tip of his ear he was sure was bright red at this point, "Lucifer would not have allowed it of the worms, they would have found out quickly what a mistake that was."

_Lucifer_ wouldn't have allowed it. The concept of Lucifer coming to "rescue" him from the Order made a stream of conflicting emotions wash through Rin. Though he was sure ending up in Satan's hands was a much worse fate than any execution he would have faced.

"But you're right, I can see the logic of bringing him, better to keep him from the worms entirely than risk him in their filthy hands." As she spoke, Iblis leaned into him further. Rin froze, something building in his core at the way she draped herself over his body.

"Hn," Amaimon grunted, not assuaged by her admitting he was right where Rin thought he would be normally.

She hadn't taken her gaze from Amaimon, either, Rin noticed.

Then...

In a slow, deliberate motion, Iblis pressed her cheek to his and nuzzled there.

The hand at his jaw stopped him from his immediate reaction to jerk back, wrenching in her hold as a hiss erupted from his throat and flames welled up inside- the urge to lash out overpowering in its intensity until, in a flurry of movement, Rin broke free.

He escaped with a fluid twist, snarling back at Iblis where he'd ended up by Amaimon's side, daring her to come closer and touch him again.

Rin would show her what would happen if she tried.

"So you _do_ have some instincts after all, my prince," Iblis said to his threatening growls, "I was wondering if they'd been buried by your human half."

"It's Rin Okumura," he said, glaring from beneath his bangs and letting his irises glow with the flames that wanted to be released so badly they ached under his skin, "and don't touch me."

That same electric tension he'd seen between Amaimon and Iblis earlier came back with a vengeance, Rin not knowing what, exactly, he hated so much about what she'd just done but knowing down to his core that he would attack if she did it a second time.

Heat rose back in the room, whether it came from Iblis or Rin or both he couldn't tell anymore, could only tell that he'd entered into a staredown and he'd rather lose a limb than break from it.

His lip lifted over a fang and he saw Iblis' focus narrow on him with dangerous intensity.

They didn't get the chance to see who would falter.

Where before they'd been alone, now Rin's senses screamed that they were surrounded, hemmed in on all sides by beings- demons- that he could sense on his peripherals.

As one, they jerked their gazes to the wide windows overlooking the surrounding area.

"What?" Rin breathed the word out, struck silent again as adrenaline thrummed in his veins and flight or fight instincts kicked in.

Staring across the volcanic field, Rin wanted to go with flight.

Amaimon snarled, defensive, and with fangs bared to Iblis, "you called them on us!"

Called them? Rin's heart pounded to his ribs, claws and fangs extended and flames beating inside him, unable to force himself to look away.

Because there outside the tower were seemingly endless hordes of demons- more than he'd ever seen or knew existed- and they all seemed to have their sights set on them.

"Not me," Iblis denied in a shake of her head, "these aren't mine."

How could she tell? The claim? Rin didn't know who the enemy was and it had his tail trying to lash under his shirt.

A lone figure moved to the front of the horde and Rin recognized the hateful demon from before, horror welling in his gut.

"Awar," Iblis hissed, "he's summoned Father's forces. He must have alerted them. Such a _disobedient_ child."

Where that statement made Rin more confused, it turned Amaimon's ire from Iblis to her son, snapping a vicious glare from wide, glowing eyes that screamed for retribution and a voice to match, "that _brat_."

Iblis tsk'd, "I should have realized- of course, he's loyal to Father.

"What will you do?" Amaimon said, already readying to act and facing Iblis again.

What would _she_ do? What were _they_ supposed to do?

"Amaimon," Iblis said with all hints of her earlier teasing vanished. Rin stilled and time seemed to slow.

She turned to the side, gesturing to a window that Rin was just realizing could open and watching as it did with her command.

But she hadn't looked away from where she held Amaimon's gaze, and he seemed to be waiting for something from her.

"Lucifer is in Gehenna, Amaimon."

Rin shuddered. Once. Cold sweat broke on his skin. What did it mean, Lucifer being in Gehenna? Was he coming for Rin? Would he look to find him in the crowd below? Was Satan close behind?

Had their time run out?

"Do with that information what you will, earth king. I won't raise the wards."

What did that _mean?_

It meant something to Amaimon and he jolted into action before Rin could process her words.

"Ah!" Rin shouted as Amaimon grabbed his arm and dragged them both to the window, launching through it in the next moment.

Down they fell, the tower shrinking away as Rin stared up into Iblis' unreadable gaze where she watched their escape.

"Rin," Amaimon said over the wind as Rin righted himself midair so he would land on his feet. He almost wished he hadn't, seeing the sea of demons howling for them to touch ground.

"Run, fight, _don't_ get separated."

The orders came loud and clear, his confusion shoved aside with physical directives. Rin knew what he had to do.

"And Rin," he looked and saw Amaimon, his expression deadly serious beneath the strands of hair whipping around his face, "don't use your flames."

Right. He nodded, bracing himself for impact.

Madness greeted their descent, a wave of grasping claws trying to pull them to the earth before they'd even reached it, only to be flung away when Amaimon hit down.

Earth rose in a massive wave, the stone upheaved like the crater of a meteor around their bodies to give them room. That bit of breathing space lasted all of a minute before demons poured over the lip. They had already cleared it, jumping over the heads of the demons and into the next group.

Rin roared, putting all the pent-up energy of his restrained flames into the punch he used to devastate the demons in his way. His hit sunk deep into a body that looked like a rotting ox, though the brief contact proved it was more solid than he first thought.

It didn't matter, the demon died in a scream, corpse thrown back to leave a clear path for Rin to race down, his moves mirrored by Amaimon's at his side.

Soon, it was a rapid pattern of hit as hard as he could, clear a path, make it to the next point, repeat.

Attacks came from every angle, glancing blows that sent red-hot agony lancing wherever they managed to strike. He'd gone deaf to the cacophony around him, only aware of the next enemy, the next encounter, keeping up with Amaimon so he wouldn't get separated.

Violence buzzed in his pores and gore had begun to splash over him when he couldn't dodge in time, obscuring his sight until he advanced more by scent and memory than what his eyes actually took in.

Always, he kept Amaimon and Mephisto in view. Even with a whirlwind of scents he'd never encountered before and whose source he could never place to an individual demon, Rin could pick them from any one, using the familiar scents to guide him through the chaos.

That same instinct had him crouching and shooting upwards, having gotten to the lip of the volcano without realizing. He latched his claws into stone. His fingers ached, bones fracturing, healing over and over and finally going numb after the damage they'd taken.

A screech echoed in the air behind him and a snarl came from his mouth in response, warning the demons trying to divebomb them from behind to keep away. They didn't listen, forcing Rin to fling himself to the side to avoid their attacks, knowing if he tried to go straight up they'd cut him off.

His claws weren't the only thing aching. Rin's muscles protested the repeated strain that he ignored to backhand the next demon trying for his vulnerable blind spot.

Rin heard several cries, blinking to clear the blood from his eyes and seeing Amaimon launch stone he'd pulled from the wall they climbed into the airborne enemies, scoring fatal hits, though not all met their targets.

One of the winged demons, a chimera-like creature with a jaguar's body and feathered wings darted in with a yowl from bared fangs. Saliva gathered on its lips, matting the spotted fur down as it focused wild eyes onto Amaimon.

Amaimon, who was dealing with another few attackers at his other side.

No! Rin snarled moving before he could think to tackle the demon mid-air in a tangle of limbs.

They dropped.

He tore the demon's throat out in a savage rending of his claws that snapped its vertebrae to leave it hanging by gummy strands of flesh and tendons in his grip.

The air whipped past him, Rin gasping as he realized he'd over-shot his attack and heart plummeting with his body back to the waiting horde.

Something caught the back of his jacket and he gagged at the forceful stop yanking his collar to his throat, swinging to slam into the rock wall as his head rang when he hit.

Disorientated, Rin gripped to the arm hauling him up only to lose that grip, once more thrown skyward and taking shreds of the fabric he'd torn loose.

But he reacted in time to grab at the wall again, gaze searching to make sure Amaimon made it to him, fear sending his pulse beating wildly because how had he maintained his hold when one hand was occupied keeping Mephisto safe and he'd used the other to save Rin?

One clawed hand dug furrows into the wall, the other hanging loose after he'd released Rin from it as Amaimon already readied himself to jump.

Amaimon had pressed Mephisto to the wall, using his body to keep him in place. Rin didn't have time to breathe a sigh of relief that Amaimon hadn't fallen rescuing him from _his_ fall.

He couldn't stop, knowing once he did, he wouldn't be able to move from the exhaustion.

They had more problems besieging them, anyway.

Demons that had been at the top began streaming down towards them, darting like a rain of bullets. Rin had to leap for handholds to the sides, playing a demented game of Frogger with the demons and not bothering to engage every one that came for him because it would be futile.

It felt like he was fighting the entirety of Gehenna. The swarming exorcists of the Order that he'd escaped at the start of it all seeming pathetic and meager in comparison.

So close. They'd nearly made it. Rin couldn't falter now.

A demon made it past his guard, slashing with its tail to draw a splash of blood where it had whipped through Rin's jacket. He cried out, spine arched at the pain as his arm went limp, a tendon cut that he had to wait to heal before he would be able to use it again, forced to cling to the wall with one hand.

Amaimon appeared next to him, fangs bared in a snarl and face wet with gore. The red made his irises glow more vividly than Rin had ever seen them as he took the next demon to reach them, bashing it into the wall until it stopped moving and he let it drop.

By then Rin's arm had healed and, as one, they leapt, clearing the rim to get a look at what faced them upon landing.

Another ocean of demons, no less vicious or fanatic in their attempts to get at them.

To capture Rin.

What were their orders about Amaimon? Mephisto?

He didn't think it would be a fight to incapacitate. If they couldn't escape here, everything was over. Rin would be taken to Satan and Amaimon would lose his vessel.

And Mephisto would die for good, trapped in his vessel as he was torn apart by Satan's army.

_Not happening._ Rin loosed another roar that shook the air around him, heat licking up his throat and at the insides of his mouth as he landed and struck at the nearest demon.

An echoing roar poured new strength into him, Amaimon picking up the reverberation as he sent shattered earth to rain down on the demons in their path.

Again, they fought through the endless wave until blood slicked Rin's claws and flesh built underneath from the chunks torn out of bodies by his raking attacks.

Rin rolled and surged up through the legs of a massive furred demon, gutting it before using it like a springboard to kick it into the smaller demons at its feet. He propelled himself to the next group, this time more spread out.

Feral joy sang in his veins, seeing the widening gaps between enemies and knowing it meant they were reaching the outskirts of the horde.

Just a little longer.

Cracking in the earth had him rolling to the side as a gaping crevasse opened where he'd just been to swallow some of the demons in Amaimon's attack.

His fist sent a humanoid demon back into the rest and suddenly they were past the horde. Rin took a moment to feel elation before his feet pounded over the shards of volcanic rock after Amaimon.

No time. They still had to outrun the multitudes behind them, couldn't fight them all.

New terrain greeted Rin's senses, though he couldn't appreciate it. This side of Iblis' domain was a swath of red-petaled flowers that went on until they edged up to another forest.

Or it had been a field of flowers before they'd been trampled by the horde.

He'd take time to feel bad about it afterwards.

The tree line came upon them and Rin followed after Amaimon's even more tattered maroon coat, just as stained as Rin's clothes and held together more by the seams than anything.

Wispy trees, much different than the ones they'd left in the other forest, passed Rin in a blur as they zig-zagged like a pair of deranged pinballs through the obstacles they presented.

How far was far enough? Rin remembered the days they'd taken just to get to the tower, knew he couldn't keep up this pace the entire way.

And he didn't think their pursuers would have that problem.

Couldn't worry about that now. Rin's attention stayed on Amaimon and they path they fled over. If he worried about the future he wouldn't make it, he just had to keep running and hope Amaimon had a plan.

Easier said than done. But, each time he thought the burning in his lungs and shooting pains in his overstrained limbs would become too much, he'd hear a distant shriek and knew the horde hadn't stopped their pursuit.

In front of him, Amaimon didn't let up, purpose guiding his steps as they burst from the last section of the small forest. A rugged mountain range greeted Rin's eyes and he bit back a whimper, already feeling the pain that was coming once he reached those peaks. But first they had to cross the open plane ahead of them still to reach it, hundreds of miles between them and what Rin could just make out to be the inner ring of Iblis' territory.

As if to mock his weariness, an eerie call came from the sky. The sound had Rin searching to find the source, seeing Amaimon doing the same until Rin thought he saw a dark shape flitting in the gloom.

Amaimon ducked to drag his claws through stone, wrenching his arm to fling razor shards towards the demon tracking them and glaring when he only scored glancing hits.

Rin knew they had to end this one quickly before it called the slower demons to their exact location.

"Amaimon, do that again!" Rin shouted, tensing in preparation as Amaimon moved to comply without question.

Another rain of shards, another cry as the demon rolled in the sky to evade the strike.

It didn't avoid Rin's body impacting with a bone-jarring slam to its side, taking it down in a wild tumble back to the ground. Rin won the brief mid-air battle and crushed the thin skull of the serpent-like demon under his claws when they landed.

A hand at his arm hauled him up again, Amaimon pushing him to run without words. Even that small pause to bring the demon out of the sky was too long, every moment they stalled was a moment lost.

Mountains loomed in the distance, snow-capped peaks bright against the dark sky and working like a beacon for Rin to follow.

He had no idea how to tell the actual distance of things or how far he had to run yet.

Just get to the mountains. Just make it there.

The mantra pounded in his head in time to his feet pounding on the uneven terrain.

This time when they made it to the first ravine, Rin jumped without hesitation, knees aching as he tumbled and rolled like Amaimon had shown him, springing back up the moment he could to continue on.

By now, the first of the horde had exited the edge of the forest, their cries reaching Rin's ears on the wind. He knew the rest wouldn't be far behind and it forced speed into his limbs that had been flagging.

It wasn't like the dunes had been where they might have found cover or obscured their path. Here, just flat gray stone interspaced with vivid chalk-blue pools of water met his eyes wherever he looked

More animalistic calls from demons flying at them, their speed giving them the edge needed to close the distance and quickly gaining. Any moment they'd reach them. Rin could hear a strange noise like a vibrating hum building over the calls whose purpose he couldn't place.

Amaimon seemed to know, falling back to Rin's side and gritting his fangs in grim concentration. Just as the hum reached its zenith, Amaimon snarled and slammed a fist into the ground with a sound like a thunderclap.

Rin found his arm yanked in a harsh jerk as Amaimon pulled him around earthen spears that shot out to pierce into the demons behind them, hum cutting off into death cries.

His own cry distracted him because the sudden change in momentum had dislocated his arm from its socket and the only reason he didn't stop running was the grip Amaimon kept firm.

Had to keep running- they were so close!

He cradled his limp arm in his hand once Amaimon released him, a sharp ache stabbing with every step he took, but Rin didn't know how to reset a dislocated shoulder.

There wasn't time to stop and figure it out, wasn't time to see if Amaimon could help him with it- since Rin didn't doubt he knew.

There were just the mountains and the miles yet to reach them.

Not that it prevented his body trying to mend anyway. The numbing pain of healing over and over joined the rest of the repeated injuries running caused until he was consumed by it and couldn't comprehend anything else.

Then, blinking to clear the haze encroaching on his vision, Rin saw the second ring, still so far away but they gained on it every second.

Time passed, agonizing and nebulous, after that realization. How long had it taken them to cross these rings the first time around? How many times had they paused for rest? Rin couldn't make his mind remember.

Demons that parted from the horde and flew quicker than they ran interrupted their single-minded path until it became an exhausting pattern again. Each time Rin was forced to pull his mind from running to killing whatever demon made it to them next and each time he came away with more injuries or less energy.

Above them, the dark sky loomed, heavy with the purple miasma that drifted all around them until finding their footing became precarious.

Hours, Rin thought he might have been running for hours. Knives raked his lungs with each breath, shattering past his lips on his exhales.

A hand at his spine had him flinching away with a snarl of confusion until he caught the scent and saw Amaimon.

"_Jump_." The command croaked out, though Rin couldn't tell if it was because neither had spoken for what was probably an entire day by now or if Amaimon had started wearing down, too.

He hoped it was the first option, didn't know what would happen if Amaimon tired and faltered.

They leapt, crossing the second ring. _Finally_. Soon they could rest. He just needed to _rest_.

He did know what he would do. Rin's tired mind drifted back to the train of thought.

He would use his flames, even if it brought Satan down on them.

Another rattling hiss from the sky, Rin used the determination that had settled in his bones to grab at one of the vicious limbs coming for him and fling it into the spear of earth Amaimon held up to impale its skull.

Blood splashed to coat the layer that had dried and started to flake off his face already. The sensation mixed with the others, joining the slew of things he could no longer comprehend with the crossed signals blipping in and out of focus in his body.

The peaks grew higher, Rin's perception of them changing the closer they got. Miasma clouds hung midway around them so that Rin couldn't see the tops of the mountain range, only that they never seemed to get taller while he watched them. Just when he zoned out or blinked away did he make any real progress.

But they did make progress, even when Rin's arm sent an agonizing electric shock after he was forced to roll on it after another demon made it to them and he thought he might pass out from the pain.

After this, he would get Amaimon to show him how to pop a shoulder back into place.

After…this...

Rin cast a bleary stare, was he drifting? Floating? Why did everything feel so numb?

And why was he staring at the horde instead of at the mountain?

Heat around his middle and familiar scents now filling his nose had Rin dropping his head, the effort of holding it steady too much to deal with.

He saw a maroon coat and Mephisto's upper body beside him and frayed green leggings blurring over the ground on reptilian legs. Then he forced his head to turn and saw Amaimon had an arm gripping his spine with massive clawed hands in the same scaled green as his legs had transformed into and understood what had happened.

"M'aimon," Rin mumbled the name, not knowing if he would be heard over the wind but unable to speak any louder.

"You fainted, your body can't handle any more," came the response, as cool as ever but Rin thought he detected a burble in the back of his throat, like he spoke around a mouthful of liquid.

"Sorry, m'sorry," Rin said in a whisper as shame welled up in him that he'd been unable to keep up, unable to hold his own. Now, Amaimon would be solely responsible for protecting them and Rin didn't know what they would do if they were attacked again.

Because despite the numbers they'd killed already, there were still so many left.

His eyes burned with tears, half exhaustion from finding himself off his feet after so long, and half caused by the fact that they'd come this far only for his own weakness to be what held them back.

On they ran, Rin's stomach starting to bruise with the repeated impact of Amaimon's shoulder and Rin wondered if Mephisto had one too from being carried that way the whole time. But he wouldn't be complaining, not when Amaimon had no other options.

And not when, even with the speed they went at, he could see more fliers coming towards them.

Something else stole Rin's attention, a darkening of the ground around them like they'd passed beneath a cloud. He struggled to raise his head, turning it to glance over his shoulder. Then he saw why everything had taken on a different shade.

They'd entered the shadow of the mountain, still far away but so massive it seemed to eclipse the world around it- and the last ring of Iblis' domain sat nestled at the base.

Relief had a shivering breath break past his lips, eyes closing as he dropped his head. Soon, they could stop. Soon.

He lost time between one blink and the next, might have passed out again, for all he knew.

When he opened his eyes and searched for the demons a gasp stuck in his throat.

"Amai-!" Rin started to shout, gripping at his arm in fear as alarm set his pulse racing and panic stringing along his nerves.

Everything happened at once.

Amaimon leapt as high as he could go into the sky, shifting Rin and Mephisto around in his arms so that Mephisto had been shoved into Rin's chest, head lolling over his shoulder. Rin scrabbled to get his arms around Amaimon's neck and Mephisto's back, yelping in confusion.

"Protect him," Amaimon said, eyes cold, resolved. Then he flung Rin and Mephisto towards the mountain.

"Shit!" Rin swore, eyes as wide as they could go and heart thundering now, as he grabbed Mephisto to his body and prepared for a hard landing.

Behind him, Amaimon roared so loud Rin knew the horde could hear him, the whole of Gehenna could probably hear his challenge.

What was he _doing?_ Couldn't think about that now. Rin had to focus on sticking the landing or he'd be healing shattered legs and possibly more than that if he hit wrong.

If Amaimon was making some kind of sacrifice play Rin would go back there and set fire to everything. He didn't _care_. He wouldn't let another person give themselves up to save him because he was too weak.

Never again.

Rin tightened his arms around Mephisto and made it to the ground, rolling in a chaotic tumble of bruised limbs and fractured bones before coming to a stop in the dust and coughing.

He lurched to his knees, ignoring the piercing pain in his body from where Kurikara had dug into his back as he frantically looked for Amaimon.

He found him shooting to the ground like a meteor, massive reptilian hands fisted and body moving with singular purpose.

A series of kaleidoscope snapshots flicked like a choppy movie.

Amaimon hit the earth.

The demons in the sky dove towards him.

The world

d

It was like the entire barren plane they stood on dropped, Rin floundering as he found himself kneeling on empty air. The dust and stone that had been displaced rose, blowing outwards on the wind in all directions from ground-zero.

Then the sound reached Rin.

A wave that knocked him off his feet, deafened him in an instant. His head rang, pressurized until he thought it would explode. Warmth trailed from his ears, his eyes, his nose where it made it to his gaping mouth and he realized he was bleeding, blinded and shaking and laid out in a dazed heap.

Was he even breathing? The world spun on its axis and Rin was helpless to resist it.

But, Rin healed, body fighting through the damage in a sudden snap of sensation and from one minute to the next he opened his eyes, hearing returning with his vision.

In his disorientation, Rin had maintained his hold on Mephisto, claws furrowed into his back and clinging to him for all he was worth. That was secondary to what had revealed itself to his eyes.

Kneeling in his impact site, Amaimon looked small.

He looked small because behind him was a smooth wall that reached into the vast sky and went on for miles on either side like great, dark wings.

Like some kind of god.

Rin forgot to breathe for uncounted time.

Amaimon stood. He wobbled, swayed, stumbled a step forward and- Rin inhaled, sharp, hand coming up from his stricken hold on Mephisto as if he could catch Amaimon as he fell.

"_Amaimon!_" Rin called across the distance, the syllables of his name tearing from his throat in the booming silence after the devastation.

Time sped back up. Amaimon caught himself on a flat step, shaking his head where he bowed over his bent knee, hands twitching in their held place at his sides.

Gold glowed over the distance between them from beneath Amaimon's bangs when he raised his head. Something else floated at his chest.

Another breath.

He blurred into motion, sprinting from the wall to rejoin Rin. The sight had Rin scrambling to his feet, Mephisto held bridal-style in his arms and ready to run again.

When Amaimon neared him, Rin began running, keeping slow until he made it to his side, then picking up the pace.

"That was _amazing_, Amaimon, I-" Rin said, looking over. He stopped talking, eyes going wide again when he saw Amaimon from up close.

Placid gold eyes slid to meet his gaze and Rin saw the way he looked reflected back. Worried. Afraid. But more than that, more than his own features, he couldn't take his gaze from what he saw in Amaimon.

Blood seeped from his eyes, staining the gold red with every blink. Could he even see from them? The whites of his eyes had vivid red beneath the sclera with the broken vessels there that had yet to heal. More red dribbled from his nose, the purple bruises under his eyes looked like he'd let someone hit him in the face.

Suddenly, Rin knew what that wet sound had been when Amaimon had spoken before.

"_Keep. Going_," Amaimon said in a low rasp, blood flecking his lips, not that it meant anything with the trails already coming from his mouth around his fangs.

And those trails made it down his chin, his neck, the wind pulling drops to spatter onto the plant-like heart Rin had only seen once before that floated over his chest.

Last time Amaimon had brought it out he'd collapsed, his vessel couldn't take the power he'd called up to attack Rin with.

Tendrils of fear for Amaimon had Rin's own heart clenching. Even now he could see the only thing keeping Amaimon on his feet was sheer will, the trembling in his limbs apparent despite the speed they went at.

Would Rin have to carry Amaimon if he fell like he had earlier? Could he?

"_Rin_," his name growled out from Amaimon. It shook him out of his thoughts.

"Don't stop."

The grim order made Rin grip Mephisto tighter in his arms, nodding and forcing himself back to their destination.

How long would it take the demons following them to get to and make it over Amaimon's wall? How much of a grace period had it given them to gain headway before they were besieged again?

A gagging cough rattled out of Amaimon and Rin flinched, desperation shooting through his limbs- his still dislocated arm pressed agony along his nerves, just using it to hold Mephisto nearly unbearable. He did bear it, had no choice but to.

Somehow, between one excruciating flare and the next, they made it to the final ring.

Rin leapt, putting every last ounce of energy in his body into the effort and still unsure if it would be enough to get across the gap.

Claws gripped to his elbow and Rin jerked his gaze to see Amaimon glaring, hand outstretched for the earth on the other side.

He watched as the ground rose to meet them in a long slope and they tumbled in a tangle of limbs over the barrier to Iblis' territory.

His groan that poured out cut off when he noticed the hand Amaimon raised over his heaving ribs where he lay next to Rin, bloodied fingers shaking.

Then he snapped.

Reality warped, twisting around them to reform in a new location far from the border, at least, Rin suspected that was what the snap had done.

That didn't give him relief, he didn't have time for it.

Amaimon gasped, choked, strangled in a pool of his own blood that spread from his gaping mouth to mix with the grit beneath his body. He arched his spine in a painful contortion and something cracked inside, breaking Rin from his frozen observation.

Setting Mephisto to the side, Rin crawled to Amaimon's seizing form, hands hovering over him and heart beating a staccato rhythm in his chest as he tried to think of what to do.

He wasn't a medic like Yukio! Frustrated tears prickled at his eyes as Amaimon convulsed and he was _useless!_

Seizures, what did he know about seizures? Did it even apply to demons? Rin turned Amaimon on his side and leaned him against his knees, struggling to keep from restraining him too much or let him flip back over. He had to get the blood out of his lungs, right?

There wasn't anyone to ask, he was on his own.

A last, wrenching gasp and Amaimon stilled under Rin's hands, skin ashen in the places not covered in his own blood or the dust he'd picked up. His heart still floated over his chest, held there by some invisible power.

Rin would have mistaken him for a corpse or cursed like Mephisto if he hadn't felt the faint rising and falling and beat of his heart where he pressed his hands, if he hadn't still seen that demonic heart.

They stayed like that, Amaimon recovering in slow increments and Rin waiting for the moment they were ambushed again or Amaimon somehow stopped healing and worsened or Satan and Lucifer _both_ decided to show up and he _failed_.

Breaths came fast from his lungs, shuddering out of him as all the possibilities spiraled out of control with nothing to distract him, no demons to fight but the ones in his head.

After what felt like forever fighting and running and pushing his body far past the breaking point, Rin floundered with the sudden peace.

Claws scraping at his hand shocked Rin from his spiraling thoughts, gaze jerking to see Amaimon staring up at him from eyes opened to slivers as he finally got a weak grip around his wrist. His heart had vanished along with the reptilian features to leave him looking smaller.

The thin air escaping from barely parted lips had Rin leaning in, wondering if he could even speak.

"Rin," Amaimon's voice came like gravel, tongue thick in his mouth. Another hacking cough to the side brought up a black glob of congealed blood, but he seemed better able to breathe after so Rin tried to ignore it.

"Sleep."

What? Rin furrowed his brows, "sleep? Are you gonna be okay?"

His questions only got a twitch of Amaimon's head back and forth and his face scrunched as he tried to figure out what Amaimon wanted from him.

"Rest, Rin." Rin startled as Amaimon used his elbow he had trapped beneath his body and the hold he had on Rin's wrist to push himself up like he was a rusted doll on creaking hinges.

"Woah- hey!" Rin yelped, shoving Amaimon back to the ground and glaring down at his wide eyes, hands pushing at his shoulders to keep him there, "why the hell are you trying to get up?"

A stubborn gleam entered those gold eyes and Rin felt a battle building as Amaimon made to rise despite the hold.

"I'm fine, I'll heal," Amaimon said in a dark grumble, claws flexing where he'd gripped both Rin's wrists, "your body can't handle as much. Sleep, I'll wake you when we need to move again."

"Seriously?" Rin snarled, then gasped as Amaimon heaved upwards and flipped out from under him in a move reminiscent to the one he'd taught Rin, though it seemed to pain him and wasn't nearly as graceful as usual.

He felt his lips pulling over his fangs as Amaimon made his way, hiding a wince that Rin caught- and if _Rin_ could see it then he _definitely_ wasn't as healed as he said he was- to Mephisto's side. Amaimon stooped to grab the back of his collar, dragging him to a nearby boulder and slumping down with his back to it, meeting Rin's stunned gaze with a glare as if daring him to say something.

Rin dared.

Jolting to his feet, he hissed at Amaimon, seeing him bristle at the challenge.

"Come here, dammit, have you slept once this entire time?" Rin spat the question, Amaimon's shoulders hunching in defense like a cornered animal, "I'll stay up and watch us."

Before Amaimon could argue again, Rin continued, gesturing around the empty gulley Amaimon had transported them to, "if something happens you can say I told you so."

Was it his imagination or did Amaimon look lost, that wide-eyed look back on his face as Rin gave up waiting for him and marched to his side. He reached down to Mephisto, undoing the button on his cloak to yank the torn and stained material from around his body. Another motion and he had it settled on Amaimon, getting a hiss for his efforts.

"What are you doing?" Amaimon said in a clack of fangs.

"You're shivering, Amaimon," Rin said, blunt, and received a deeper glower for pointing out his weakness, "we're in the mountains, I don't feel cold so much but you don't have flames, so take it."

"You'll leave him in the dirt, then?" Amaimon sneered, getting cruel in the face of Rin's actions. That was fine, it wouldn't stop him from what he had to do. "This is new. Are giving up on your human displays?"

"No," Rin said, and the firm response sent Amaimon pressing back to the stone, head bowing to stare from beneath his matted bangs, a feral cat that wasn't used to kindness.

So, when Rin dropped to sit at Mephisto's opposite side and adjusted him until he had his head resting in his lap, even more confusion filled Amaimon's eyes. His pupils darted from where Rin tried to fix the mess his hair had become, though he couldn't do much without a comb and settled for brushing it back from his forehead until he was satisfied.

"I don't understand," came the words, and from anyone else Rin thought they would have been whimpered out.

Rin sighed a long breath out, shutting his eyes as he leaned his head back to the chilled stone and tried to ignore his own body's pleas for rest to think about how he would answer Amaimon.

"It's like…" he hesitated, eyelids opening to slits as he gazed at the boulders across from him without seeing them, "just because he's got this curse thing, it doesn't mean he's gotta look like it. He'd hate that, if we let him just fall apart."

Amaimon didn't say anything, staying quiet.

"Dignity," Rin found the word, head tilting to look at Amaimon, "he's gotta have his dignity."

Silence met that, and Rin guessed Amaimon was trying to understand what he'd said.

"What's the point" Amaimon finally spoke, words slow off his tongue as if he searched for their meaning.

That made Rin snort, amused despite himself, "well, do you want to be the one to tell him why he looks like shit when we save him and he wakes up?"

His humor startled a cut-off laugh from Amaimon, nose wrinkling like he didn't know where the sound had come from. It faded to a wry twitch of his lips and Rin read the concession there as Amaimon untensed from his curled position.

"Our punishment would be unending," Amaimon said with odd delight for what Rin didn't doubt would be a horrible punishment from Mephisto if they didn't keep his body pristine. But, he lay down, Mephisto's cloak pulled up so that only that strange point of his hair stuck out the top.

Rin kept his gaze from Amaimon, knowing it would just set his nerves on edge, and instead prepared himself for however long Amaimon would need to sleep for.

Fingers scratching idle patterns in Mephisto's hair to entertain himself, he settled into his watch.

* * *

Amaimon curled tighter beneath Samael's cloak, inhaling to take in the scent. At this point after being carried by both he and Rin, it smelled like the three of them, their scents mingled in the fabric.

_When_ we save him. _When_ he wakes up, Rin had said. He'd shown no hesitation when he'd said that, had no doubts that Amaimon could see.

...He would have to process their escape from Iblis' domain when he awoke next.

Shelving the millions of thoughts fighting for prominence in his head was normally an impossible thing, but his body's fatigue won out and Amaimon drifted into sleep for the first time since they'd begun.

In this, he would trust Rin.

* * *

His voices hadn't been with him when he'd woken, but something new occupied him all the same.

Knowledge of his other half.

Abduxuel.

He toyed with the syllables of that name, imagining how it would sound coming from his mouth, spoken aloud. It almost wasn't worth the undertaking, having come to bitter terms with the fact that he couldn't gather the energy to speak no matter how miserably he wanted to.

But, something within him pressed him to try. Lips parted, lungs strained, he thought his body trembled once with the effort.

Nothing. He gave up, untensing in the water what miniscule amount he'd managed.

Even that pitiful attempt left his vision hazy and exhaustion numbing his bones in his body.

Sleep didn't come for him yet, though, so, with little else to do, he amused himself with his thoughts.

When he'd remembered Abduxuel, the massive information flood had nearly sent him under the moment it entered his mind, but he could pick it apart at his leisure now.

A claim. He'd had a reciprocated claim with the being that embodied the concept of space.

Brother, other half, lover, he didn't think there was a term in any human language to describe the bond he'd shared with Abduxuel. They'd been formed from the same cosmos, the same concept ran between them, almost indistinguishable from one another.

How could he have forgotten?

And, now that he'd remembered his other half, why then could he not remember himself? What did it mean that they shared a concept? It answered nothing. He still didn't know anything about himself, only how another related to him, like ties leading to nowhere.

Even more, that was only the _concept_ making up Abduxuel, the personal details about him still fought his ragged memory, more impression than bright clarity. Surely, if they had been so close, they would have memories shared together, interactions and time spent in each other's company?

It did no good to force it now.

He just had to simplify his task, focus on one aspect he wanted to know and dig until he discovered it. Anything more would only frustrate him and wear him out quicker.

So, what did he most want to know about his other half?

_What does he look like, taste like, feel like, sound like_

No, too much, he would never be able to press for those minute details so soon.

Perhaps...

His nose twitched, something was _different_.

Was that...a scent on the air?

Something other than the empty, lifeless scent of the water that carried no hints about where he floated had reached his senses.

Earthy, like the air after a rainstorm. Petrichor, the humans had termed it. Suddenly it was all he wanted to smell, the newness, anything other than the same bland, stale air he'd grown numb to in this hell.

Where was the source? Where did it stem from? Surely that must mean he was near to something, or something neared him.

A ripple. He didn't hold his breath this time, inhaling to take in more of that scent, as much as he could until he could have drowned in it. His voices were back. Could the scent be linked to them? And was it more of his imagination playing cruel games with his mind that the scent seemed stronger now that it accompanied those voices?

"-Ahahaha!"

Laughter, bright and sudden in the silence sent his heart skipping at the unexpected joy.

"Magnificent!"

And it sounded as if it came from right behind him, so much closer than last time, where it could have been hidden in the clouds. Now, he felt as if he could tilt his head and there would be the owner of the first voice. Close enough to touch, if only he could move.

How did it compare to Abduxuel's voice? Was his higher or lower in pitch than theirs? How did his laughter sound?

What did he look like? The question came upon him suddenly and he realized he'd gone this whole time without thinking about the appearance of his two voices.

And, what did Abduxuel look like?

Abduxuel. Such a strange thing, how names had become so important that just knowing a single one occupied his thoughts and stirred him from the sleep his body kept trying to slip into. He got stuck running the one name he held now over in his head, waiting for more from his voices.

By this stage he recognized when that strange record-skip happened to signify time advancing for his voices. Though, another question he considered was whether they moved in a linear fashion at all, assuming they existed and weren't figments of his imagination, of course. It was possible they bounced around various points in their lives together and he just caught snippets of those interactions out of order or even in a short span over the course of their lives together.

Not that he would ever know without more of their dialogue to guide him and help him uncover the puzzle that was his two voices.

"...Don't act like prey."

Where was the second voice? Was he the one the first voice spoke to in both the recent occurrences? At turns praising with unfiltered pride for an accomplishment and then the next scene showing a hint of threat.

With the supposed youth- or possibly just inexperience- that the second voice had established with his lack of knowledge about claims or the vulnerability of a tail, he guessed the first voice had taken the role of tutor and guide.

The record skipped again.

"...Of course, and you've always been so keen on gathering favors in the past."

A new voice? This one sounded like a dark crackle, flowing magma and a spark of violence on her tongue, goading. Mocking. Dangerous.

"Will you give us your answer or not, -?" Of course, another hidden name. But he didn't expect anything else, listening more to the rapidly building drama with the hissed response of the first voice.

He could almost feel the electric tension in the air, a dry forest waiting for a match to set everything ablaze. Without his notice, his heart had begun to pound waiting for the strike.

"Ahah-ha!" The tension dispelled in the next moment with bright laughter from the new voice.

Fascinating. What was the relationship between these two that such a stand-off could resolve without violence? Though, he suspected the potential for another occurrence existed at all times.

"Wait, _what?_ What just happened?" Ah, there was the second voice. He wanted to smirk at the bewilderment he heard. How sweet, the unconcealed emotion in his voice. He made no efforts to hide how painfully out of place he was.

"This is the most interesting thing that's happened since - appeared." Certainly the most interesting thing that had happened since he'd awoken. Now he had a motivation for the new voice. It was one he well understood. If something held interest, it then also held worth, if only to be studied and its components broken down until all parts of the mystery were uncovered.

"I'll give you what I know, -. You're not going to like it. - must have believed I would know more because our dear - may have told me, yes?" So many names hidden from him. Was the topic concerning the previous voices he'd heard his voices interact with or other players he had yet to meet- a combination of both?

"He did." Perhaps they referenced the other unnamed voice from before that had infuriated the second voice so much. It was impossible to know.

"You know as well as we all do that there's only one who - honors with his secrets- well, now that he and - are at odds, at least." _Who_ were at odds and what had set them apart? How long ago had the rift occurred? He nearly vibrated out of his skin with the desire to know the answers to his questions.

"And you know why I wanted to avoid that." A response that spoke of long history and past strife between the first voice and whoever this other who had been mentioned was.

"I can think of several reasons, yes. But, some good has come of this venture of yours. You've brought our - to see me, I wondered if I would ever get to meet him before everything was said and done." That was even _more_ interesting. Was she speaking of the second voice? Did he hold some importance in the drama of the revealed story?

Now that he thought about it, what was the second voice's role in things? Why was the first voice bothering with guiding him?

Clearly there was something more to the second voice than he'd realized. He would have to pay attention for any information that could explain why.

"I had to."

"Had to?"

"Yes, the worms were going to execute you. Assiah wasn't safe." An _execution!_ Now the mystery deepened. He was giddy with the unexpected twist to the story. The second voice _was_ important, at least enough to have an execution order on his head.

The first voice had become protector as well as guide to the second voice. He filed the new information away, rearranging his building web of the players and their roles.

"- would not have allowed it of the worms, they would have found out quickly what a mistake that was." Wonderful. Just wonderful. This being she spoke of had enough power to halt an execution but for some reason his two voices were avoiding that protection. Another mystery. What kept them away from someone who could help them in their quest?

"But you're right, I can see the logic of bringing him, better to keep him from the worms entirely than risk him in their filthy hands." So, the humans were a factor in this little drama as well, and not on his two voice's sides. Yet they also weren't going to the other faction- the one the new voice spoke of- for help, either.

A record skip. He was immediately paying attention.

"So you _do_ have some instincts after all, my -." Danger had returned to the new voice's words, sly venom coated them and he got the impression of a predator about to pounce.

They'd returned to the threat of violence.

"It's - - and don't touch me."

He shivered, nerves pricked with the low growl darkening the second voice to a deep rumble. Suddenly, his perception of the voice _shifted_ on its axis. This one who he had dropped into the neat category of harmless youth, good for a tease and little else, had broken from the box with one simple utterance.

It made him want to test the second voice, to figure out how to pull that dangerous tone from him again, to see what he could unleash from those hidden depths.

What had the new voice done to him to garner such viciousness?

Waiting became agony. Would this be what caused the breakdown between the three voices?

"What?" The mood shifted, the second voice losing that edge as fear colored his words instead. Had they been interrupted?

"You called them on us!"

"Not me. These aren't mine."

Was this a betrayal?

"-. He's summoned -'s forces. He must have alerted them. Such a _disobedient_ child."

"That _brat_."

"I should have realized- of course, he's loyal to -."

It _was_ a betrayal, but not one by the new voice. He didn't have time to consider it, the conversation happened rapid-fire after that and he had to keep up.

"What will you do?"

"- is in Gehenna, -. Do with that information what you will, - -. I won't raise the wards."

So, she wouldn't interfere, was offering information, but wouldn't assist his two voices, either. The reasoning could be personal or political or a mixture of both and it didn't seem he would ever know.

"Ah!" The yelp of surprise from the second voice suggested movement.

In fact…

Just like the last time he'd been awake, his surroundings _changed_ as if through a screen.

More outline, impression than anything solid, flickering in and out of existence in the uniform haze of clouds above.

But he saw-

-A body, leaping from a tower before him, hand outstretched as if gripped by something.

Could it be the second voice? Where was the first?

"-. Run, fight, _don't_ get separated." Close by, it seemed, possibly the one holding the hand of the second voice.

He drank in the sight of him, roving over the form to take in every detail he could pick up, then doing it again. Some sort of uniform, black, perhaps, and short, dark, wild hair that whipped around a determined face with eyes a vivid blue he had no trouble seeing the hue of even with the faded quality of the rest of his body.

Here was more proof that the voices existed outside of his mind, that they were real.

Something else stole his focus, a low sound emerging on the wind like a thousand voices screaming, calling out for blood.

The form of the second voice hit the ground, breaking into a fluid series of attacks, basic though they were. He moved like he raced towards something, leaping and lashing out in a repetitive pattern where every crack of his fist to some invisible enemy sent blood splashing to his face.

A roar past bared fangs from the second voice shook the air, coming loud, clear, making his breath hitch in his chest and his head tilt back in the water, eyes shuttering as the sound consumed his senses.

It was visceral, savage, a pounding rhythm in the second voice's gait he witnessed once he could open his eyes again that sent his pulse pounding in tandem.

Then the cries for blood he'd heard must be multiple enemies, baying like dogs at his voices' heels and they the fox fleeing from the jaws of death.

Glorious and utterly _riveting_. Would his two voices survive the storm chasing them down? What would happen if they didn't? If they perished, killed by their pursuers.

What would happen to him? Would he sit in silence for eternity or would new voices join him?

The thought had him pressing his lips together, something in it sitting wrong. It wasn't because he couldn't find another's presence or life fascinating- although he thought that most would pale in comparison to the mystery that was his current voices' lives- but he had already come so far with these two that to begin a new web of players would be tedious.

Watching the way the second voice snarled in pain at some attack, his impression coming in and out of focus, he hoped they survived.

He saw the second voice move like he'd just jumped. The single-minded focus on his gore-coated face had bated breath coming from his lungs. Even as multiple strikes seemed to hit their mark on his body, he bared his fangs without fear.

One especially cutting attack sent his arm hanging limply at his side, left him vulnerable, exposed from whatever he clung to.

Blue eyes pierced through the haze, looking right at him and stopping his heart in his chest. They simmered with flames that warped the iris in a shifting dance around bright red slit pupils and the weight of existence pressed in on him until his breath burned in his lungs.

Was he looking at him? Could the second voice see him in his cage? Did he know that he was there?

But in the next moment fear entered those eyes and the second voice leapt, desperation sending him flying as if straight towards him, tearing into another invisible enemy. Then he fell, too far from whatever he'd clung to and unable to bring himself back.

Just as he thought the second voice would be lost to the screaming voices in pursuit, he was caught just overhead and yanked to slam into some solid surface.

He knew where the first voice was now, mind mulling it over as the second voice was flung upwards. It seemed he was viewing things from the perspective of the first voice. Would he continue that way? And why that perspective? Why not that of the second voice's?

Why-

The second voice leapt, his perspective following at his side.

Ears elongated, fangs bristled, bared from a mouth twisted in a snarl, and those piercing blue flames in the eyes of the second voice bore down at what could only be his enemies.

He roared.

He _roared_ and i y.

Shattered reality.

Broke the haze in his mind that had been clinging there even through his current awareness.

His pulse sang wildly in his veins, body thrumming with the defiance inherent in the voice and ringing in his endless cage.

A beat.

A second roar answered in turn.

An aching fever built in his chest, tightened with a pressure until he thought his ribs would crack to release the pulp his heart must surely have become with the way it swelled to bursting.

The two voices- _his_ two voices- had declared for all their enemies to hear that they would not falter, would not flinch from the challenge.

He wanted- _needed_ to answer their call! The desire burned in his body, squeezed his throat, a constricting fist as if he fit into a too small vessel and it was moments away from tearing apart at the _seams_.

Please…

_Please!_

If there was ever a time to force something from his lips, why couldn't it be now?

Desperation tore bloody claws at his insides, suffocated him from within, just vaguely aware that his two voices had begun fighting their enemies again.

Their calls had woken something in him that railed at his imprisonment, eyes shot open but unseeing, mouth gaping like he could loose a roar and- and something, _anything!_

All that he managed was an exhale past stretched lips that may have been sharper than any of the others he'd given before but didn't feel like it, didn't express the current like a livewire jolting new life in his bones.

Alive. He felt _alive_.

Like the life this cruel place tried to sap from him had returned with that one reverberation, then sped up at the roar of the first voice in response.

He lost sight of his voices when the burst of energy they'd brought him receded like a wave pulled back to sea. The image of the second voice flickered behind his fluttering eyelids, cutting out with more of the record skipping and black spots dancing in his vision.

It took more strength than he imagined he had to force the vile sleep away. He couldn't go back to that, not yet, not when he needed to see the outcome of this trial more than he'd ever needed _anything_ besides his own name.

So, body fighting viciously against the exhaustion dragging him down, he kept his eyes opened to slits and watched the way his voices fled.

Violent confrontation interrupted their path, though it had become infrequent as they gained distance on their enemies.

But they still wore down, the record skipping in and out of focus showing the second voice getting more ragged, new tears appearing in his clothes every time he flickered into view.

The second voice was clearly moving on complete instinct, no longer conscious of his struggle over whatever terrain he crossed. Those vivid eyes had glazed over, movements flagging and breaths rasping from his mouth. How much longer could he last? How much further did he have to go?

And, what would happen if he faltered now? There were so many possibilities and he had so many spots of missing information needed to narrow them down. He couldn't guess without knowing what their destination was and how much further they had to reach it.

He couldn't guess, but that didn't stop him, anyway, his mind filled with all the outcomes and scenarios.

A falter in the second voice's pace brought his attention back to him, seeing him leap over something and roll in a graceless tumble. The form was there, but the energy needed to perform it correctly seemed beyond him now. He didn't give the second voice long before he fell and didn't get up again.

Time skipped, the second voice ran with an arm that looked dislocated and, by the way he didn't move to set it back in place, he had no idea how. That handicap would exacerbate his fatigue.

Any moment now…

His gut twisted. Seeing the weakening form still so desperate to keep running kept his own drained reserves from vanishing entirely.

"_Jump_." The sudden croaked out directive from the first voice had his heart leaping just as the second voice snarled in confusion, snapped out of his haze by it like he had been. But he did follow it a moment later, though, just as before, his movements betrayed his weariness.

This jump was more graceless than the last.

He didn't expect him to get back up but the second voice did, wounded arm cradled in his other and wincing at what must be agony lancing from each jolted slam of his feet to the ground.

Perhaps he would make it wherever they ran to.

Perhaps-

A stumble. The second voice fell, face slackened in unconsciousness and eyes closing over those blue irises.

What would happen now? What was the first voice _doing?_ Would he leave the second voice? Surely, given the apparent importance of the second voice he'd glimpsed in the earlier scene, that outcome faced a lower probability than others?

The form of the second voice faded, a bare outline- he held his breath- it vanished, falling towards him, then disappearing from view.

_No!_

Go back for him! Was he an idiot?

Just as he felt tendrils of true frustration at the first voice for leaving the second voice to his fate, his vision of his cage flickered again and a shape began to define itself.

Like the barest snapshot, he saw the wide eyes and startled expression of the second voice.

Then…

A new form shaped into being, revealing the features of a face. A sharp jawline, strange green hair shaped in a severe point on his head like that of a horn that framed an expression that could have been carved from stone and golden eyes that glowed brighter than any star.

Energy poured from those eyes, the sliver of slit pupils swallowed in the light that welled up within them and he couldn't look away from that hypnotic gaze if he tried.

"Protect him."

The first voice- the _first_ voice.

This was he who had spoken with such wry, teasing humor, or blunt truth where others might use a pretty, sugar-coated lie. This was the form of the one who guided the second voice, who _hadn't_ left him to their enemies that chased them down.

But before he could get a better look at him, the first voice flew backwards, falling away to a faraway point on the uniform horizon of his cage. His arms and legs were like that of some massive reptile, the sight stirring something inside him he couldn't place but which sent his heart racing regardless.

What was he doing now? A suicide gambit? And what did 'protect him' mean?"

It all happened both faster than he could process and as if in slow motion.

That reptilian clawed hand of the first voice clenched into a fist where he floated in the sky.

A roar _shattered_ the cage, or just his _mind_.

His eyes rolled back in his skull.

Challenge, so loud it couldn't be ignored, couldn't be denied.

Louder, still, than the ones his voices had called out before.

Loud enough to strike him straight to his core.

Loud, to wash away all else.

The world swept away on that savage cry, his pulse drummed a frantic beat that eclipsed every other sensation he was capable of feeling.

If the first roars had let their enemies know they would be met, this roar told them they would be _conquered_.

His breaths, thin wisps, still, panted from between his teeth. He may have gone under, drowned in his desire to go to the source of that power, to consume like it was the most necessary thing he could do.

Any thought to add his voice to the call died before it could fully form, mind short-circuited, pulled beneath the black tide as his nerves set alight and _burned_.

His vision skipped out again. When it came back, the first voice dropped like he'd been shot from a gun straight towards the waters of his cage.

Time stretched, an event-horizon of a blackhole extended for eternity and swallowing all else in its path. Energy trailed like great wings behind the first voice, massive and enough to blot out the weak light of his surroundings until all he could see was that form plummeting down.

He hit like a star going supernova.

He hit and it rendered his reality obsolete.

_Devastation_.

Ruin he couldn't take his eyes from if all the world's forces came for his throat.

Instincts had his body whipcord tense, taut with the urge to arch his spine and go towards that destruction.

That scent like new earth still reached him, nostrils flaring to catch it and inhaling deep as he filled himself with everything he could get of the first voice.

He stared out over the water to see the first voice look up from his kneeled position before an impression of dark wings, saw the gold of his eyes pierce the haze, saw him rise, sway, stumble, begin to fall.

His eyes widened. It _was_ a suicide gambit, a sacrifice play to give the second voice time to flee and live.

Would the second voice leave him? Would he ignore his efforts and go to rescue him? Would it all be in vain?

A strange wind picked up, caressing his cheeks like a touch. Those gold eyes began to close.

Everything stilled.

Silence like a watery grave.

The voice on the wind wasn't a whisper.

It didn't come softly to his ears.

It _screamed_ over the open waters and slammed into his mind with all the desperation a being could express in one wrenching cry.

**_ n_**

The first voice- _Amaimon_\- stopped his fall in a solid stance. Gold gleamed.

Then he couldn't comprehend anything at all as knowledge poured into his skull and drowned him in-

_Growthlife_**_death_**

_-Earth_. Constantly changing even as it stayed the same, as it would until the sun collapsed and swallowed everything in its path.

Evolution in motion.

_Amaimon Amaimon Amaimon Amaimon_

He wanted to crow the name that he finally recalled, the euphoria rushing through him a release he'd been aching for the moment he heard Amaimon's voice in his cursed space.

A name! He had a name to one of his voices!

Who was Amaimon to him? Why was he seeing him over another in his cage? The curiosity about what he might have shared with the embodiment of the concept of earth set fire in his veins.

Fire to beat the exhaustion threatening to send him back to the abyss. But he didn't want to go just yet, fought to keep afloat even a second more.

What would happen to his voices, to Amaimon, now? He had survived the fall, but what about the enemy on their heels? If he slept now, allowed himself to listen to the siren song clawing at his tattered energy, would he wake to find one or both of his voices gone?

Weariness had his vision blurring, seeing vague flashes of color, of gold and muted green snapping in and out of focus.

Running again. Still fleeing. They couldn't rest yet. _He_ couldn't rest yet.

A snapshot of Amaimon's face forced his eyes open further because he saw the effect those efforts had on his body. How much could he take? He couldn't possibly perform another feat like he'd just done. Not with the way blood had poured from his ruined body.

So, they must be close to their destination. There was no other reason to use such a debilitating technique if he didn't know there was a good chance of survival, either his and the second voice's or just the second voice.

"_-eep. Going._" Amaimon. The second voice had no doubt also seen the damage and, with the way he'd shouted Amaimon's name, the way he'd called loud enough that it had allowed _him_ to remember that name when he'd watched him fall, the concern was obvious.

But Amaimon was right, the second voice's concern wouldn't help their escape.

"-, don't stop." The second voice needed more convincing, it seemed.

Time skipped. It was even harder to open his eyes after the last blink.

His voices jumped. The agony on Amaimon's face was overshadowed by vicious determination as power glowed from his bloody, near-blinded eyes and around his body. When he landed, it was in a pitiful heap and he could see he wouldn't be able to rise.

They'd reached their limits.

But had they reached safety?

Amaimon raised a hand, the flickers of his energy feeble around it. What was he-?

A snap. His voices disappeared and when they reformed it was so that he saw Amaimon convulsing and suffocating in his own blood. That last action must have stripped him to the bone, pulling the dregs of his energy to accomplish.

So...tired.

Would he make it? With power like what he'd displayed, a being like Amaimon couldn't succumb in such a way.

He couldn't…

Another blink, longer, eyes weighted down and unbearably heavy.

"-eep."

"What? Sleep?"

Someone speaking.

"-ou gonna be okay?"

...The second voice. His eyelids opened to slivers. When had he closed them? Why was he keeping them open? Why was he fighting so hard?

The barest outline of a body- Amaimon, it was Amaimon's, the first voice- lay there on the hazy sky.

His body wasn't seeping blood anymore.

Good.

Go…

* * *

White walls stared at him in a silent room. Only the metronome ticking of a clock filled his ears.

It should have been peaceful. It used to be peaceful.

Now, it was just empty.

Yukio stared at his apartment with its open floorplan, wide glass windows, and marble countertops and set his phone on the cold surface.

The mess looked out of place in the minimalist space.

He had a mission in the morning. He needed to head to bed soon so he would be rested.

Knocking shattered the still air.

"Hope you're decent in there, kid!"

Shura. _Again?_ Would she be here every day?

After the announcement she'd had to give to the upper-class exorcists the other day, he hadn't thought she would feel the need to visit again so soon.

Repressing the urge to grumble about the interruption, he went to open the door.

His eyes widened, stunned.

"Wow, they really went all in on the sterile lack of warmth in these places, huh?" Shura said, voice loud and out of place, echoing around the apartment.

"Yeah, I'll say," Shima walked in behind her, brown eyes taking in the lay of his furniture, what little there was.

"Sorry for the short notice, Mr. Okumura," Bon said as he came in followed by Konekomaru and Izumo with something in his hands that he set on the counter, "we brought a housewarming gift."

Yukio got a short sound of thanks out before he faced Shiemi in the doorway and trailed off.

Green eyes watered with tears as Shiemi met him with her saddened gaze and a smile trying to stretch on her face.

He hadn't talked to her outside of class besides the short conversation to tell everyone what had happened to Rin. He hadn't wanted to see what he saw now.

"Um, I thought," Shiemi said, mumbling as she fidgeted with her skirt, gaze dropping to the side. Her hands came up, sending him a step back as he realized he'd stalled her in the doorway. He should let her in, it was considered rude to leave a guest in the hallway.

"I thought I would give you a plant- for your new home, you know?" Something green rose to his nose and he blinked in a flutter of lashes behind his glasses until he made it out.

"I had Nee grow it and chose one of the pots from my grandma's garden."

She raised her head and smiled.

"Do you like it, Yuki?"

Blue flowers, delicate, small, but a spot of color in his colorless apartment nonetheless, rose from an earthen clay pot.

"Er- yes, thank you, Shiemi, it's really nice," Yukio said as he took it, the clay warm on his fingers from where Shiemi had held it in hers. He set it on the countertop next to his phone. "What kind is it?"

The question about a subject she was comfortable with shook some of the hesitance from Shiemi and her smile had less strain in it as she came in and shut the door behind her.

"It's a Miss Ruka- uh, I mean, a Chinese forget-me-not-"

Yukio had stopped listening, eyes pinned to the innocent plant that seemed to draw all the attention in the room with its now achingly familiar colors.

Forget-me-not, the color of blue one he'd know anywhere.

His fingers spasmed with the urge to throw the plant from the window to the streets below. He shoved them in his pockets and made some sound to let Shiemi know he'd heard her answer.

"Man, isn't there anything in this fridge yet?" Shura said, her loud complaint jerking him from his staredown with the plant to glare her way.

"I haven't had time to go shopping, I'll likely be eating out most days, anyway," he said in the hopes that it would get her out of his apartment sooner so he could have quiet again.

"Huh? Why- oh, yeah," Shima piped up from where he was watching the view outside, "Rin's the cook in the fami-_urk!_"

"Shut up, dumbass," Bon hissed, smacking Shima over the head as if the damage hadn't already been done. Though, really, Yukio wanted to tell them that it was too late for that. Just the noise and mess in his once spotless apartment was enough of a reminder.

When was it considered polite to send guests home? How much time? Half an hour?

"Thank you, everyone, for the gifts," Yukio said as he went to open the other one, hands undoing the decorative knot of the fabric carrying satchel wrapped around a wooden box.

He opened the lid.

Yukio froze again.

"We figured you could use a little warmth in here, just you and Kuro can't be good all by yourselves," Shura said, voice coming from right over his shoulder and way too close too suddenly.

By themselves? Yukio forced his hands to move, detached as they lifted the solid wood frame from the box to place it next to the plant.

"Yes, it'll fit right in with the plant, thank you," Yukio said on automatic, unable to make his gaze leave the photo contained in the frame now mocking him next to the plant.

Rin's smiling face beamed up at him from the long-ago picture they'd all taken together at the Kyoto Tower.

Eyes the same color of forget-me-not blue burned into his.

Wrenching away with a bright smile, Yukio ignored the careful look Shura appraised him with, "I don't want to rush everybody, but I have a mission tomorrow I need to prepare for and was planning on calling it a night soon, so..."

"They really didn't give you a break, Mr. Okumura?" Konekomaru said, and his expression held pity that Yukio wanted to glare at but knew it wouldn't be fair to his student.

"Yeah, wait, can't you just give him some time off now, Miss Kirigakure?" Came the obnoxious and tone-deaf question from Shima that he would expect from Rin.

Shura sighed, leaning back on the arm of his lounge-chair. Didn't she know that was how you ruined chairs? If she kept it up every time she visited, he'd have an indent there.

"Not on this one," she tapped a finger to her neck, "can't say anything but there's something important brewing and we need all hands-on deck. You exwires will probably get told all the fun stuff soon."

"Great, that's not ominous or anything," Izumo said, sarcasm in her voice and her crossed arms. Though Yukio suspected she hid worry over the situation. Well, she would be crazy not to be at least a little bit terrified about what was coming for them on the horizon.

"Um," Shiemi said as they gathered by the door to leave, "would it be okay to stop by to check on Miss Ruka every now and then to make sure everything's okay?"

"Sure," Yukio stuttered, mind blanking on his words. Was she just talking about the plant or was it a thinly veiled excuse to check on him? "That's okay, just give me a heads up beforehand so I know to expect you."

And maybe that request would sink in for the rest of them so he didn't have to deal with more unannounced arrivals like he had.

They said their goodbyes, the cheerful smile Shiemi had darted at him before the door closed on their departure clearing the thoughts in his head for a moment.

Then he turned and saw the gifts.

He set the plant in a corner by the window, out of the way but somewhere it would get light.

The photo he tucked into a drawer. Shiemi would tell him the next time she planned on visiting, so he would take it out then.

Yukio went to his room to get ready for bed, ignoring the slit-pupiled eyes that Kuro tracked him with where he curled on the sheets.

In his hand he had a key to take him to Russia tomorrow for his mission, dropped off by Shura.

Tomorrow, he would see the Gehenna Gate.

* * *

"Wow, that still blows my mind every time I see it."

Lewin grinned, knowing Angel would be sending him one of those scrunched-brow looks of confusion but unable to contain the giddy excitement at seeing the view from their vantage point.

Below them, the light barrier they now knew belonged to Lucifer shone with an ethereal shimmer around the fully formed Gehenna Gate.

"We should at least try to destroy it, there must be some way to close this damned gate ourselves," Angel said when he didn't elaborate, growl in his voice and itching to follow through with his words.

"Ahaha, that's a pretty aspirational idea, Angel," he said, knowing Angel wouldn't sense the sarcasm but taking a special joy in using it anyway as he rubbed at the back of his head, "I don't think anything but Satan can destroy a Gate, but you're so strong, maybe you can do it."

By the gnashing teeth, Lewin figured his point had gotten across to Angel.

They wouldn't be closing this gate on their lonesome, and nothing but the time spell Mephisto had placed on it could stall it.

In essence, they had to do damage control.

"Back to base then?" Angel said after he must have gotten his fill of staring at an unchanging scene. Lightning didn't think he could ever move past something like an artificial Gehenna Gate created by their enemy, the ever-elusive Illuminati, out in the Russian wilderness and guarded by a barrier put in place by Lucifer, Demon King of Light and Second in Gehenna under Satan, himself.

But he knew time was of the essence, especially without their own king if time to extend it.

Still. Lewin hummed at an idle thought, tossing one last glance at the gate before trailing after Angel. "I'm real bummed I never got to meet the Satan spawn before he went to Gehenna. Now it looks like I never will, huh."

The derisive scoff from Angel wasn't unexpected, either.

"He was a foul, dangerous beast that should have been put down before this whole mess happened," vitriol burned in the air, "he's brought ruin to Assiah with his very existence."

Well, the odds weren't in their favor on that front, so Angel wasn't too far off the mark. But, after having met Yukio Okumura, somehow Lewin didn't think foul would be a word associated with Rin Okumura, not by the people who knew him, at least.

Dangerous beast, maybe, but not foul. Which just made him all the more cheesed off that he'd missed his golden opportunity to meet the infamous Satan spawn and study what made him tick!

Never mind getting to interact with the equally as fascinating Mephisto Pheles in a one on one setting. He had more than a few questions about the strings that particular puppet-master pulled and how it all tied into a certain night.

Steps took him down the path they'd cleared back to the temporary base set up on the foothills around the gate.

A lower-class exorcist running towards them had a frown tugging his lips, especially once he saw the disturbed expression on his face.

"Sirs, you need to come check this out," he said in a rush, already gesturing to bring them into the communications tent.

He jogged after him, brushing aside the tent-flap and getting a slew of stony expressions his way.

"What's up?" Whatever it was, it couldn't be as bad as, say, an artificial Gehenna gate poised to release the armies of Satan at any moment.

"We're getting reports of- well, just look." Lewin walked around to the screen, wishing for a moment that Osceola were there so he could get concise reports without having to actually do the reading. The big guy was good for number crunching and data collecting in a pinch and then presenting it to him so he could avoid sifting through the noise.

Lucy would call that lazy of him, Lewin called it outsourcing your resources.

The words on the screen took a second to sink in. He froze, eyes going wide and breath catching in his throat.

"And this just started happening now?" He whispered the question.

"We need to prepare everyone for immediate combat readiness!" Angel shouted, panic eating into his words and long blond hair whipping around his face.

Maybe. But he didn't know. How many reasons could there be behind the information he was seeing come in from around the world from every branch of exorcists.

Demons were vanishing from Assiah.

There was only one other place for them to go.

Gehenna.

* * *

**Notes:**

Alternate titles were as follows:

-Rin Gets Yeeted  
-:REDACTED: Has Questions, None of Which Get Answered  
-Amaimon kicks so much ass this chapter, u guys don't even know  
-The boys: going berserk  
-Don't u get tired of being nice, don't u just wanna go ape shit


	6. Hot Springs For What Ails Ya'

Summary: Mephisto learns a little more about the names he's remembered, not all pleasant. Rin and Amaimon find a hot spring and soak some of their aches away then find out there's some pain that you can't fix with a hot bath.

Notes: usually a hot springs chapter is supposed to be the fun unwinding chapter for characters. Usually.

(I am a cruel god, my characters, they suffer).

Also did u guys SEE that new manga chapter drop? Mephisto for Number 1 Demon Dad amirite XD Somebody get him a mug with that on it, he deserves it while Shiro and Satan are being childish again.

One step closer to being able to update Incandescence, since I know that's what everybody is really wondering lololol I just need to know what Amaimon's deal is after he flipped out on Mephisto and darted off, presumably to go get Shiemi. Like, that's it, Kato, that's all I need T.T

Also, am I cursed to never write a short chapter again? This was supposed to be like 30-40 pages, not another 20k (:

Song(s) of the Chapter:

I Know You by Lana Del Rey

We Must be Killers by Mikky Ekko

* * *

Drifting currents.

Muffled sounds from far away.

A voice, as if through water.

"-."

"Hey, -."

Familiar, the voice was achingly familiar.

"Amaimon and - got into another spat again, looks like he's hiding out in Assiah for a bit."

Hm. Amaimon always got into spats with them, that was nothing new.

"Not interesting enough, huh?"

Quiet filled his ears beneath the ever-present thrum of a pulse.

"Everything bores you." Wry laughter accompanied the words. They were wrong, anyway. Not everything bored him.

Not the humans.

Not you.

It took him under again.

* * *

He opened his eyes. He was healed now. They had to move on.

Soft breaths came from his side. Rin. And Samael.

Had Rin fallen asleep?

"Ow." A low groan from Rin made his ears twitch. That had sounded strained. He hadn't slept though. Amaimon had been right to trust him to keep watch.

Samael's cloak had twisted around him in the three hours he'd slept for. A bloodstained patch under his nose brought the scent of the various demons who'd died in their escape, bothering him to smell.

Rin would likely want to eat. He had to get up.

Amaimon clutched his fingers into the fabric he'd gripped while unconscious, bringing an unstained portion to his nose and inhaling. His eyes fluttered open, staring at the weave of it as memories of the past day rose with his awareness.

From the beginning, he'd known the path they would be forced to take. Iblis had just confirmed it for him with the information she'd given.

Lucifer. All roads led to Lucifer.

Would his gambit pay off? The danger increased with every moment they stayed in Gehenna.

And…

Samael's time drained exponentially each day, too.

The curse sapped at his reserves faster than Amaimon had thought possible.

Already he-

"Ngh." Another muffled sound of pain from Rin. What was wrong with him?

It made him pull the cloak away and sit up. He turned his gaze to Rin and froze.

Blue eyes blinked up at him, Rin's face twisted in a wince as he prodded at his shoulder.

His shoulder, which was, upon closer inspection, dislocated, something Amaimon only saw because Rin had, for a reason he couldn't place, torn the sleeve of his shirt to reveal it to the mountain air when he could have just removed the shirt entirely.

"Oh, you're awake, are you okay now?" Rin said, palm pressing to his arm as Amaimon sensed the flames welling there at the place he touched.

"What are you doing?" Amaimon said instead, sitting up the rest of the way and furrowing his brows.

"Er," Rin glanced down, sheepish and rubbing his hand to his hair, "I kinda need your help with this."

A gesture indicated the shoulder, though Amaimon still didn't know what he was asking for.

"What?"

Rin hunched in a one-sided shrug, "I kinda don't know how to pop a shoulder back in place and you yanked it out when we were running. Can you show me how to pop it back in? It keeps trying to heal where it is."

Unbelievable. Amaimon laughed, the sound bursting out of him at the shock of Rin's request.

He'd fought through swarms of the beasts of Gehenna, squared off with Iblis, fourth in Gehenna's power structure, forced Amaimon to _sleep_, and yet couldn't pop his own shoulder back into place.

The scowl on Rin's face made even more amusement bubble up in his chest. Rin hissed as he moved to grip the arm where it hung limp at his side.

Another movement and he'd shoved it back into place.

"Thanks," Rin muttered, pressing to the joint and looking away again.

"Pay attention, you need to learn this," Amaimon said as he took hold of his own arm.

A questioning sound came from Rin, head turning back to him, then his eyes widened as Amaimon yanked his arm out of his socket with a grunt at the pain.

"Holy shit!" Rin yelped, reaching towards him until he remembered Samael was still in his lap and carefully lay him to the ground to move next to Amaimon.

Amaimon tugged the remains of his jacket off to better show Rin his arm, "Take hold of it and straighten it out to here, then push it back into place, please."

"Yeah, sure thing," Rin said, managing to overcome his human squeamishness to comply. The heat from his palms where he held Amaimon over the frayed green arm-warmers and his shirt distracted him for a moment, mind going to the flames he knew burrowed under Rin's skin.

It really was..._annoying_ that he couldn't use them while in Gehenna.

His drifting thoughts were interrupted again when Rin shoved and his shoulder popped in, healing within seconds.

"Good." He nodded and rotated his shoulder before standing and taking stock of where he'd teleported them to.

The last few moments before he'd fallen asleep had been hazy with pain and holding his vessel together. Now that he was awake, he could better assess the situation.

A quick glance told him they'd ended up midway to the border of Lucifer's domain, which was ideal to give them space between the horde no doubt still on their heels but also far enough to avoid whatever might come from Lucifer.

"Um, Amaimon?" The questioning tone from Rin had him focusing back seeing him picking at the ruined clothes he wore with a grimace.

At his attention, Rin spoke, "Are you healed enough to clean this? I think I'm starting to stink."

He snapped and repaired their clothes, removing the dried blood in the same instance so that they no longer smelled like foreign demons.

Rin breathed a sigh of relief, patting himself down.

Then he winced again when his hands touched to his chest and Amaimon cocked his head.

"Are you still hurt?" He asked, wondering if Rin would admit to the weakness or cover it up.

Sure enough, Rin pulled his hand away like it burned, turning to bend over Samael and hefting him in his arms.

"No, I'm fine, just tired," Rin said, eyes dark where they shown over Samael's shoulder. He'd lifted him in that same hold that meant both his arms were occupied and left Samael with his head tucked into the crook of Rin's neck. Another mystery he didn't understand.

Tired. That was true, Rin would need to sleep to recover. And eat. Otherwise he would likely collapse soon. Amaimon was surprised he hadn't already with how heavy the bruises under his eyes were.

Scanning Rin's form, Amaimon saw the trembling in his limbs and the pallor to his skin, frowning as he realized Rin was standing through sheer will and little else.

"You need to sleep, Rin," Amaimon finally said when it looked like Rin wouldn't admit anything.

"I can keep going," Rin insisted with a shake of his head that made him sway and Amaimon glare at the stubbornness.

Instead of listening, Rin took a few steps forward. Then he hissed, stumbling with Samael in his arms and locking his limbs in place over his bent form.

"You _are_ injured," Amaimon said in his own hiss, coming towards Rin as he watched him rub a hand to his chest. "Don't be stupid. You're useless if you can't even walk."

His words made Rin freeze, hand twitching over where he'd been twisting his jacket in a clenched grip. What could he be hiding that wouldn't have healed by now?

He snapped and Samael disappeared from Rin's arms to his, earning a confused yelp from Rin as he jerked back up again and glared.

"I just-" Rin cut himself off, gaze flicking as if he couldn't meet Amaimon's and deepening his scowl, "-I need a bath, something that isn't just getting snapped clean, and unless you've got a tub in wherever you're keeping the food there's nothing you can do about it, okay?"

A bath? The request drew Amaimon up short, confusion pricking at his mind as he tried to understand why a bath would be any better than the way they'd been keeping clean now.

Although, if it was a bath he wanted. "Okay, fine."

With a thought and another snap of his fingers, he brought them to a new location.

The yelp of surprise from Rin at their teleportation was soon replaced by a gasp of awe and he watched him gape at their surroundings.

"No way, is this- are these-"

Bubbling water and steam hissed from a deep blue pool several feet from Amaimon, filling the small ravine of the mountain so that everything was obscured and heat chased the cold from his bones.

"There's hot springs in the area, is this good enough?" It had better be good enough. Amaimon narrowed his eyes at Rin. If it turned out he was like Samael, complaining that a hot spring was dirty or that it needed more of those human products to be considered a decent bath, he would drop Rin in the mud somewhere and let him clean himself the rest of the time.

"It's perfect!" Rin beamed at him, naked delight in his eyes and wide smile that stopped the irritation in Amaimon as he settled to see what Rin would do next.

Already, Rin stripped the clothes from his body. Then Amaimon saw why he had been reacting so odd earlier and what he'd been trying to hide.

Black fur looked tangled and matted, unfixable by a brush, even with all the things humans had come up with that Samael liked to keep around despite not needing any of them. But, more than the tangled fur was the shaking in the appendage Amaimon could see without his clothes in the way.

Amaimon watched as Rin sighed when stepping into the water, face losing some of the tightness from the pain that his tail must have caused him after being wound up for so long.

And then he unwound his tail from his waist, the ink-black color sliding over the blue like a dark stream and Amaimon couldn't take his eyes from it if he tried.

"Ow, shit, that hurts," Rin hissed again, staring back at his tail in the water with what looked like tears in his eyes and reaching for it without thought.

He almost warned him about what would come.

His arms tightened around Samael, indecisive.

Rin's hand closed over where Amaimon could see a kink in the tail, then he fisted it in a firm hold.

"_Ahhn~_" a thin moan left Rin's mouth, eyes shuttering and spine arching as his fingers spasmed over his now thrashing tail that sent up splashes in the water.

Droplets hit Amaimon's cheeks, jolting him from his stupor while Rin flinched and sank down to his knees, tail still clutched in his hand.

Sensitive. His tail would be incredibly sensitive after days of being hidden beneath the layers of his restrictive clothing.

"_Holy fu-_" Rin said, eyes sightless as he gazed skyward with a pink flush to his cheeks and droplets that could have been sweat or could have been water from the steam trickling over his body.

Either way, Amaimon wanted to follow them with his tongue, maybe his claws, to see if he could add red to those trails.

Was Rin still adamant about not playing with him? Maybe after this he wouldn't object.

A shake of Rin's head and a splash as he ducked down beneath the water had Amaimon drawing up from where he'd been about to set Samael down at the edge.

Bubbles that looked like they came from Rin's mouth and what sounded like a muffled scream paused his movements further. What was he doing now? Surely it didn't hurt that much, at least, not compared to the injuries he'd taken earlier.

Before he could near Rin to see what his problem was, he shot out of the water, tripping over to the far edge from Amaimon and slumping so that it covered him to his nose.

Then only the sound of the hot springs filled the area, Rin's ears bright red and Amaimon utterly baffled.

"What-" Amaimon began.

Rin cut him off, hand erupting from the water in a halting motion. "Don't ask, just get in the water, please."

Get in the water? The command bewildered Amaimon further. Did Rin want to play or not? But, if they were going to be in this place for awhile, as he didn't doubt they would be, given Rin still looked one blink from falling asleep where he sat, then he might as well get comfortable.

He rolled his neck and began tugging off his clothes, hiding a smirk when Rin couldn't seem to look at him but instead seemed to find a patch of grass across the rim fascinating.

The purr that wanted to rise at the inadvertent attention rose anyway when he stepped into the hot pool, bubbles caressing his skin in heated waves as he let his tail unwind and slip under to coil in slow patterns. It had begun to ache too, though he'd had much longer experience with that pain than Rin had and knew how to mitigate it a bit.

That didn't mean the hot water didn't send a shiver through him when it seeped into the sore muscles of his host vessel.

And he noticed Rin darting stolen glimpses towards the place his tail had settled, the smug feeling making his purr audible.

Maybe he could get Rin to make the first move if he taunted him enough. Though if he didn't up the ante Rin would fall asleep where he sat. Amaimon studied him, seeing he'd turned to rest his head on his crossed arms to hide the flush still on his cheeks.

Just as Amaimon was about to begin, Rin startled him by speaking.

"Hey, we should get Mephisto in here, too."

Once again, Rin left him blindsided.

Amaimon snapped his gaze to Samael's unconscious form, trying to understand what benefit, what _purpose_, there could be to bringing him into the water.

Repeating himself to Rin would get him more confusion, he knew, but the words slipped out anyway.

"Why?"

Rin shrugged, the motion making the water gathering from his hair drip down his neck to sluice over the muscles of his exposed shoulders and back.

"Why not?" he said, proving, as always, that Amaimon would have better luck asking Samael, cursed asleep as he was, for Rin's reasoning.

Why not. Fine. He snapped his fingers and Samael appeared on the side between he and Rin, clothes vanished, head lolling to his chest.

If Rin were hoping for a miracle induced awakening from the supposed curative properties of the hot springs, Amaimon could tell him to expect disappointment.

It wouldn't help Samael now, no human remedy could. He crushed the bitterness curdling in his gut, knowing it was as useless as Samael being in the waters with them.

Arching a brow after directing the earth to hold Samael in place, Amaimon glanced over to Rin as he wondered if he could get back to his teasing.

He stilled, echoing the way Rin held himself, wary while his claws flexed at his sides.

Wide blue eyes seared their way over Samael's body and mute horror filled Rin's expression as his nostrils flared, taking in the scent now coming from Samael once his clothes had been removed.

Oh. Amaimon's features deadened. Rin hadn't been able to sense what his eyes now revealed. He hadn't known the extent of the degradation. How far the rot had spread.

"How-" Rin croaked the start of his question, a slight tremor going through him and his jaw working silently before he could speak again, "How did it spread so fast?"

How? It was Amaimon's turn to sink further into the water, toes digging into the sand where the water coming from the vents in the earth burned in super-heated temperatures, letting the pain distract him as he answered.

"His healing is no longer functioning," it hadn't been for the past day, "The curse went through his reserves already."

"Oh," Rin whispered the word, hands coming up to grip his elbows and tail winding around his hips as if in comfort. He looked smaller, not helped by the way his lack of sleep must have been affecting his reactions. "How much longer do you think he can last? It's only been a few days."

Degradation scrawled ugly patterns over Samael's chest, over his limbs, his stomach, where most of the pressure of the journey had centered. His tail, usually so vibrant and well-kept, lay limp to the side, tossed around by the current in a poor mimicry of life.

Only his face stayed untarnished, somehow. It was almost cruel. If, as Rin had done, one didn't have the senses or familiarity to understand what was happening, then, with clothes, Samael would appear as if he were sleeping.

"I don't know," Amaimon admitted, voice empty. He shifted in the sand before completing the sentence, "Samael never told me how long it took."

Silence drifted like the steam. Amaimon caught himself watching the way Rin bent to rest his chin on his knees, wet bangs hiding his eyes from view.

"It sounds like he told you about as much as me, huh," Rin murmured, solemn. His fingers etching slow circles to the skin of his knees, absently wiping through the water.

A hiss tried to slide from Amaimon's mouth. As if a being so young and _ignorant_ as Rin was could say what Samael had spoken to Amaimon after more years alive together than he could comprehend.

Human civilizations had risen and fallen in the millennia they had walked the earth. Words in languages that had been forgotten by the worms who had formed them passed through their conversations and would as long as they continued to exist.

But…

"Yes." Rin was right. "No one knows Samael's mind."

What good was a conversation in any language if it held no real substance, after all.

Rin laughed. Amaimon jerked his gaze up at the sound.

"Well," those bright blue eyes met his when Rin lifted his head, sleep deprivation making them wild, too bright. It didn't change that Amaimon couldn't move once pinned by them.

"That'll be a good lesson for him when we save him, then, won't it," a snicker left Rin, grin quirked at Samael. Then, "Next time he wants to hold back important stuff we'll remind him he literally almost died the last time he did it."

Remind Samael- Amaimon bit at his cheek, fangs slicing through the skin. How-?

His lips twitched, chest squeezing. The pain centered him and a wide grin of his own stretched across his face to bare his bloodstained fangs in a sharp laugh.

It hadn't been a fluke, the last time. Rin had no doubts they would break Samael of his curse. Even seeing him in this rapid decay, knowing they headed for Lucifer while Father's armies pursued them, Rin hadn't changed his mind.

In the end, only the outcome would decide if Rin was made a fool or not.

"I think," Rin trailed off, yawning wide enough to crack his jaw and exposing his fangs, "I think I'm good to sleep now, if it's safe here."

Nowhere was really safe, Amaimon wanted to say. But, Rin had already lay his cheek to the sandy bank, face haggard and body curled up beneath the water.

"Don't- don't let me drown, okay Amaimon?" The sleep slurred words stopped him from making more than a short sound of agreement.

It wasn't any stranger a place to fall asleep in than another. He certainly wouldn't be leaving the heat sooner than he had to. A flick of his hands and the earth reformed around Rin in a way that would prevent him from rolling from his position.

Another thought stole his focus off the black length of Rin's tail where it swayed in idle motions beneath the surface.

If they saved Samael, what would that mean for Samael's plans for Rin?

And, did he even know the true nature of those plans, or had Samael misled them all about those, too.

Amaimon watched the bubbles in the springs and didn't know what to think.

* * *

Warmth tickled over his body in comforting waves.

A current tugged the fur of his tail, lapping at skin and muscle that had become tense and aching from repeated strain without rest.

He nuzzled further to the wet grit his cheek lay on, tongue darting out to taste the water on his lips with a soft hum.

When was the last time he'd woken up so slowly, so comfortable?

Drifting water caressed his skin, the edge of consciousness creeping up on him but not breaking the final barrier to waking.

But something else began to press at his thoughts, an ache in his gut, and one further down.

Shuffling didn't ease either and Rin's brows scrunched, frown tugging his mouth. His hand that had been clawed into the sand beneath the water unlatched and went to scratch at his stomach.

Gurgling let his dozing mind know he was hungry. His hand moved further to deal with the other ache.

Pleasure coiled and replaced the hunger pangs as a light sigh escaped Rin's parted lips. The haze slipped further. Why was he in hot water, anyway?

His hips twitched, tail moving to coil around his leg and twisting in slow patterns over the trapped limb. Sparks from wet fur being pulled against the grain sent pinpricks of awareness to light up his mind.

Rin knew why he was in hot water, he was in a hot spring. He was in a hot spring because his body had been aching and tired. He was tired because…

Rin's eyes shot open.

He was tired because he was in Gehenna, on the run from Satan's armies, and traveling to save Mephisto from a cursed coma.

With _Amaimon_.

Gold gleamed from slit-pupiled irises in a head cocked to the side, staring with unabashed curiosity.

"Are you awake now? Why did you stop?"

Stop- Rin squeaked, jerking his gaze down to where he'd been palming himself in his sleep and tearing his hand away like it burned.

A second later and he'd dove to the deeper waters of the spring, flush on his cheeks burning hotter than the water coming from the sand that seared the bottoms of his feet.

Holy shit, why him? Of all the times for this to happen and it had to be while he was naked in a hot spring with Amaimon. Was this hell? Rin darted his gaze around himself. Okay, it was hell, literally, because where else would something like this happen to him? In Assiah?

Any second now-

Water splashed and Rin's ears caught Amaimon shifting.

"Did you want help?" There it was.

"No!" Rin faced Amaimon, eyes wide and shoulders hunched, "No, I'm okay, I'm good."

Amaimon wore what almost looked like a pout, scratching at his cheek with a black claw where he lounged on a raised bed of sand he'd formed in the water.

His gaze drew to the slim green, lizard-like tail that swayed in the air above Amaimon, mirroring the casual interest he stared at Rin with from his position laying on his stomach.

As if mirroring the sight, his own tail waved in the water at his feet, reminding him of his other problem that hadn't vanished despite the rampant embarrassment it caused.

And Amaimon still didn't look convinced.

Rin panicked, digging his foot into one of the places hot water bubbled up from and hissing at the shock of it stinging his skin.

The pain sent waves of sensation through his body and unexpected heat to his gut and Rin yelped, floundering in the water as he slipped backwards.

He fell, limbs splaying in alarm, until he landed with a crack of his skull to the stone jutting up from the sand behind him, a low groan coming out and his eyes clenching shut.

"Ow," Rin mumbled, catching the scent of his blood and wincing as he touched the back of his head where it healed.

Was it too late to kill himself now?

Opening his eyes to slivers showed him exactly what he expected. Amaimon stared, chin half in the water on his crossed arms and brows raised in a look of stupefied confusion.

"Didn't I teach you how to fall right?" Amaimon said. Somehow, Rin didn't think he would like where he went with his question. "Do you need more lessons?"

"No- yes, I want more fighting lessons, I just woke up and panicked," Rin said as he scrambled to straighten things out.

Amaimon hummed, though it sounded disappointed and Rin fought another blush when he thought about the reason. He didn't know who to thank for the fall that had jolted his body out of the previous heat he'd woken with and given him something new to focus on. But it definitely wasn't Amaimon and it definitely wasn't his stupid body for deciding to wake up that way.

One problem solved, Rin wracked his mind for another one to distract Amaimon with.

A gurgle from his stomach sent relief rushing through him and Rin shook his head to clear it further.

"Do you think we can eat now, Amaimon?" Rin asked, hand over the empty pit in his gut that seemed determined to remind him he hadn't eaten in over a day and had been running and fighting the whole time.

That was a pout for sure now pulling Amaimon's lips down, but he heaved himself off the sandbed, stretching to send a ripple of water trailing down his lithe form. Rin realized he'd been watching that path longer than he should have and forced his gaze to the side before Amaimon noticed.

His gaze caught on Mephisto and two emotions fought for dominance in his mind. Seeing the degradation blackening his body again when he wasn't two steps from collapsing cast a cold light in the heat of the springs.

On the other hand, his curiosity had just been answered.

He now knew what both Mephisto and Amaimon's tails looked like.

Rin kept his gaze from where that tail lay under the simmering water by focusing on his hunger and Amaimon.

Focus was hard to come by, another flush fighting to rise on his cheeks when Amaimon walked a little ways away, tail swaying in a slow path at his calves. Why was he still watching it? It was just a tail. Rin saw his every day he looked in a mirror after he'd gotten one.

Fingers gripping his tail in a firm stroke, a tug to sensitive nerves only used to pain from too much force or little attention paid at all, and pleasure that whited his vision out- the memory had Rin correcting the thought.

Right. That was why. Rin shook his head, rising from the hot springs to step over the damp sand and wincing at the uncomfortable feeling of it between his toes. And he kept his tail tucked close to his body out of sight.

Now that he'd left the water, he became aware that he'd spent the last who knew how many hours sleeping in it and _really_ needed to be dry and clothed.

"Ah, Amaimon," Rin said, digging his foot down to trace a divot in the sand, "Do you have any clothes? Or can you give me mine?"

He got a blank look from over Amaimon's shoulder before he snapped his fingers and Rin found himself dried and dressed in his uniform again, the damage undone. His tail had also been wound up beneath his shirt. Rin hid a grimace, knowing the momentary freedom he'd experienced had ended and he'd be dealing with his tail cramping up before he knew it.

"Thanks, Amaimon," Rin said, then wandered over to a flattened rock on drier ground to settle on it and glanced to see where Amaimon had moved.

Another snap. Rin's nose filled with the scent of overly salted junk food and hot saliva pooled in his mouth despite wishing desperately that he had access to a kitchen so he could cook again.

Still, it vanished within moments, Rin unable to stop himself once he'd started. His stomach rebelled at his rapid pace but wild hunger overrode that pain, and soon he sucked the remainders from his fingers.

He sighed, leaning back to drop his hands to the ground as he closed his eyes to give his body a chance to realize he'd eaten.

"When we get back, I'm cooking us real food," Rin said, opening his eyes to see Amaimon facing him from his seat, having clothed himself and eaten, too.

"This is food," Amaimon said, missing the point entirely.

"Nope, your diet's as bad as Mephisto's," Rin grinned and got another confused tilt of Amaimon's head, "I'm making stuff that wasn't preserved or fried and covered in salt."

"So," Rin tapped a claw to the rock he sat on, Amaimon darting a startled look there at the sound, "What do you like to eat that isn't junk food?"

His grin stayed on his face, even with the baffled expression Amaimon still set on him, though it faded as he realized Rin waited for an answer.

"Sweets," Amaimon said in a careful tone as if unsure what Rin asked for, "I like sweet things."

Of course, not a specific meal. Rin would just have to guess what he'd like. "So, like, cake? Pastries? Chocolate? What?"

A glow lit Amaimon's eyes and excitement replaced the confusion on his face as he nodded, "Yes! All of those."

"Huh, okay," Rin smiled at the enthusiasm, "I can make us a cake, I learned how this year."

Amaimon grinned in turn, toothy, like he already imagined the cake. Then he bent forward on his crossed legs. "Samael got a cake, in his office. I want that one."

Something about that rang a bell and made Rin search his memory for why Mephisto getting a cake in his office sounded familiar.

"It was a Christmas cake, it made Samael happy."

Christmas cake. Christma-

Rin bit off a strangled shriek, pointing at Amaimon as his mouth worked soundlessly before he could blurt out, "I made that! How did you- you were there for that?"

The confirmation from Amaimon had Rin burying his face in his hands for what felt like the millionth time. Would he never live the embarrassment of the Christmas cake-Birthday cake mix-up down?

At least Amaimon didn't know the difference between the two cakes, there was always that.

He scrubbed his hands over his face and exhaled a breath, sending a twitching smile to Amaimon. "Sure, I can do that cake again."

It hadn't crossed his mind then, the only concern at the time being to get rid of the extra cake, but the knowledge that Mephisto had liked his cake, had been happy because of it, made a curl of his own happiness flutter in his chest.

Taking his hands away let him see Mephisto where Amaimon had also cleaned and clothed him, setting him to rest at his side. He'd even arranged his body so he looked like he slept. Nothing of the rot slowly consuming his vessel could be seen under the layers of his clothes.

Picking at the rock he sat on gave Rin time to put his thoughts in place. The whole situation with Mephisto seemed familiar.

Almost like…

"Hey," Rin said, knowing it was a long shot, but, now that he'd thought of it, the idea wouldn't leave him alone for some reason, "Did you ever read the fairytale 'Sleeping Beauty' before?"

"Is that a human story?" Amaimon said after a bit of silence, trying to process Rin's words, no doubt.

"Yeah, it's okay, I didn't think you had," he waved off the efforts Amaimon made to think about his question, "It's just kinda funny, what we're doing and what's up with him- ah, not 'funny' funny, but ironic funny."

At the new pause, Rin continued, trying to figure out how he would explain it, since it had been so long since he'd had the story read to him as a kid.

"It's a kid's book about a princess that gets cursed by an evil fairy so that on her sixteenth birthday she'll prick her finger on a spinning wheel and fall into a sleep-like death," Rin said, feeling the lines of the plot out like from a distant memory.

"I don't know," he said, self-conscious all of a sudden at the long stare Amaimon appraised him with, "I guess all that doesn't mean anything, but Mephisto being cursed to sleep reminded me about it."

Amaimon didn't have any emotion on his face that Rin could parse. At his side, he rubbed a groove into the stone with his thumb.

Mist rose between them and Amaimon's eyes gleamed with a strange light.

When Rin thought Amaimon wouldn't answer, he dropped his gaze and spoke in a quiet voice, bare of emotion.

"How did the story end?"

He wanted to know? Rin blinked at the unexpected question from Amaimon, seeing he'd rubbed his skin raw again in a mannerism Rin was beginning to associate with him mulling things over. Another one of those habits he realized Amaimon had, including the way he tended to chew at his black claws or bite down into his fingers until he bled.

The red welling up beneath Amaimon's thumb took his attention until Rin saw he still waited for a response, oddly patient with his lack of one.

"Well," he hesitated, unsure why and forcing himself to continue, "She gets saved with true love's kiss, it breaks the curse, she wakes up, and they live happily ever after."

"You know, fairytale stuff, like they all end," Rin said and shrugged again, wondering what Amaimon would make of a childish story like that.

Yukio and he had used to beg Shiro to read any story and, when they'd stumbled on fairytales, that had been the highlight of the next few weeks of bedtime readings. Then they'd grown out of them right around the time they started going to school.

"That won't work for Samael." Rin snapped his gaze to Amaimon, seeing he'd noticed the injury he'd caused himself and was staring down at the blood that stained his skin as he spoke.

"Well, yeah, I didn't think it would. But why not?" Rin asked, hoping Amaimon hadn't been looking to him to have a magic solution to breaking the curse.

Amaimon didn't move from his rapt attention on the repetitive motion of his hand, speaking almost as if to himself in steady words, "Demons don't love, it's a vague human concept we don't understand."

"Don't love?" Rin stopped, baffled as he tried to figure out what Amaimon meant.

"Samael always laughs at human love, he thinks it's funny," Amaimon said, finally pulling his thumb away and licking the pad of it free from the blood while he healed, "I don't get it. I don't get humans."

"Yeah," Rin mumbled and shifted where he sat, "Vague is probably a good word for it."

"You're just supposed to know it when you feel it." Which, Rin knew that wasn't any more helpful and likely wouldn't give Amaimon any breakthroughs with his feelings, whatever they might be.

He caught himself watching the way Amaimon trailed his tongue to the last of the red on his hands, searching for something to get them off of the heavy conversation topic.

His mind flashed in a sudden recollection of the way Amaimon had licked him with the point of that tapered tongue, heat rising in his face but unable to stop himself from speaking out of some morbid curiosity.

"Hey, I've been meaning to ask, what was up with the tongue thing, you know, when we met Astaroth?" Did he even want to know the answer? It was too late now. Rin added, "I know it's a demon thing but I don't understand why you did it."

Amaimon cocked his head at the question, though by this point he no longer seemed surprised when Rin didn't know something related to being a demon. "Because you calmed yourself quickly, despite being in one of your rages your instincts brought out. It was a reward for good behavior."

"Good behavior?" Rin yelped, "What am I, a dog?"

"Not a dog, Rin," Amaimon said, rolling his eyes, "A demon."

Like that made it any clearer. Rin scratched at his hair, trying to understand the strange instincts that hadn't had any problem with Amaimon's reward earlier and unable to equate them to any human part of him that made sense.

But at least they'd left the previous topic. Rin sighed, relaxing against the rock more and casting a gaze to where Amaimon lounged.

It had been awhile, Rin was surprised Amaimon had let them rest for as long as he had. "Uh, when did you want to move out again, Amaimon?"

"Not yet," Amaimon waved off, "After you've digested your food so you don't vomit it up running and waste it."

"Hah, yeah, I didn't even think about that, thanks," Rin said with a laugh, glad Amaimon had anticipated that potential disaster and saved him future embarrassment.

A snap and poof of smoke brought out more of those suckers Rin was coming to associate with Amaimon with the amount of them he consumed and a stack of manga to the side.

"Where did you get those?" He gestured to the books, unable to imagine what Amaimon got from them, or why he read them at all, when he didn't understand most human things.

"They're Samael's, I borrowed them," Amaimon said, selecting one from the top and holding it by the tips of his claws as he stared at the cover like he was thinking about something.

"He collects them," Amaimon chewed at the sucker, clicking it to his teeth as his brows furrowed before turning his gaze to Rin, "I don't understand why he likes them- or any of the others. Humans don't make sense."

"Er, how come?" Rin tried, wondering what Amaimon wanted from him, because it sounded like he wanted an explanation for why Mephisto liked something. Rin barely understood himself, let alone Mephisto. Unless Amaimon meant humans? Did he want him to explain humans?

Rin hid an amused snort. If Amaimon wanted him to explain humans, he could find better teachers than Rin. Taking until the Academy to have any friends outside of his brother and the years of being a social pariah didn't make him the best candidate.

"Their actions don't make any sense," Amaimon said in a grumble, looking at the manga in his hand like it had personally insulted him by not coughing up the secrets of the reason humans were the way they were. "Every story has the same pattern and they have problems that they make worse when there's obvious solutions."

"Like what?" Rin asked, curious about what Amaimon considered an obvious solution.

"This." And Rin was handed the book in Amaimon's hands, staring up at where Amaimon stood after having walked over, an expectant expression on his face as he waited.

He looked down.

He looked again, then flipped through a few pages, face burning up to the tips of his ears with every page he scanned.

His breath came out choked at the newest page and his hands had begun to shake before he slammed the cover shut and jerked his head up to see Amaimon, arms crossed with an utter lack of awareness about what he'd just handed Rin.

"You got this from _Mephisto?_" Rin wanted to jump back into the hot springs to escape the situation. How did things like this keep happening to him?

Because in his hands went beyond a hentai manga and into what was now the most hardcore bit of porn he'd ever seen- something he didn't doubt Shima would kill to set his eyes on.

What was he saying? Of course Amaimon got it from Mephisto, the bastard was exactly someone who would have that type of book in his collection.

"Wh- what confused you about this one?" Rin said, trying to keep from being even more of a spaz than usual around Amaimon and honestly unable to figure out what bit of human interaction could possibly have been unclear.

"It's the same as every other story. The humans have a problem and then make it worse," Amaimon said as he plucked the book back, ignoring the twitch of Rin's fingers to glare at the cover. "This human keeps letting the other one interfere with their courtship when they should just fight or kill the other to keep them away instead of wasting time."

Oh. Rin wanted to laugh, incredulous that of _course_ Amaimon would focus on that portion of the book and not the graphic sex and violence in it.

At least he could answer that particular question, though whether Amaimon would actually understand it was anybody's guess.

"Humans can't just go around killing each other when they get angry or we'd all be dead," Rin started, "Though I can't talk about the fighting because I got into tons growing up."

Still did, in fact. But at least most of the fights he got into nowadays were sanctioned by the Order as missions.

"It's not like we get a new vessel when we die. Once it's over, that's it." Rin had a feeling Amaimon wouldn't care very much about the lives of some random humans.

"It's like," he chewed at his lip, gaze flicking to Mephisto, "It's like if Mephisto dies like this, he's not coming back, so it's important to save him."

How did it come that he was talking about the sanctity of life because of a hentai manga? Yukio would be laughing at him if he could see him now.

"And," Amaimon said, drawing him out of his thoughts as he tapped a claw to the book, "That's why humans do the strange things they do? Fear of death?"

"Er, yeah, I guess," Rin said. That was one way to put it. "I mean, I don't want Mephisto to die, that's why I'm here."

Cold, reptilian eyes met his and Rin fought the urge to fidget under that stare.

"Did," Rin hesitated, unable to tell if Amaimon was satisfied, "Did that help?"

Instead of responding right away, Amaimon vanished the book in a poof of smoke and went to drop back to his rock.

His other habit showed itself, fangs clicking over a black claw as he chewed the nail with a faraway gaze. Just like the day in the alley when Amaimon had declared he'd help Rin, he seemed to come to a decision.

"I owe him." Rin released a questioning sound at the non-sequitur, not knowing where it had come from or where Amaimon was going with it.

Amaimon tapped a claw to his chest, staring down with eyes that seemed lost in memory. "This body doesn't hurt. It used to be every moment was a slow torture while my host ate itself away. That's the way it is for all of us. He's the reason I don't feel like chewing my own fingers off or flaying the skin from my bones to escape the agony. I owe him."

It came to Rin in a flash and his breath caught. "That's why you're helping him?"

"Yes," Amaimon said, simple, not giving Rin anything else.

That was the explanation behind Amaimon's three-word answer he'd given all the other kings, Rin, and Yukio. He owed Mephisto. Rin scanned his gaze over Amaimon, trying to put into words what that revelation meant.

Rin felt the words in his thoughts, mulling over them and picking them apart. He owed Mephisto, so that was why he went against all of Gehenna, Satan, Lucifer, the Order.

It didn't sound like the whole truth, still.

But, it was more truth than he'd expected to be gifted, more insight into Amaimon than he thought he would hear.

The sullen way Amaimon looked at him, as if waiting for a response and prepared to get defensive over the vulnerability had Rin holding his first reaction back.

Really, that Amaimon had spoken to him at all when he'd guarded his reasoning with everyone else said something Rin couldn't place yet.

And, something else had just become clear.

"You know," Rin said, grinning at the admission he was about to make, "In the beginning I really thought you didn't care whether he lived or died. I'm sorry, just because you don't show it the same way as I do doesn't mean you don't care."

Amaimon looked away and Rin had a feeling the open words, laying the truth out like that, was causing some embarrassment in the emotionally stunted demon.

Whether he owed Mephisto or not, Amaimon had stuck with Rin despite the odds thrown their way. Maybe he dressed it up like having Mephisto owe him a favor was the driving focus, but, like Iblis had pointed out, Amaimon didn't seem the type to care about favors.

Rin couldn't think of any other reason for Amaimon to help him, even if he maintained that the only reason he stayed was for owing Mephisto.

"We should move on now," Amaimon said, choosing to avoid what Rin had brought up and bending to take Mephisto into his arms. Rin stood too, then startled as he found his own arms full of Mephisto, fumbling at the sudden weight with a gasp.

"You- you're letting me carry him?" Rin hesitated in asking the question. Would Amaimon take him back because he'd mentioned it? And why had he gone from not letting Rin before when he'd asked?

Placid eyes swept Rin's form. "You were able to keep up, you can watch him now without getting killed."

Fluttering in Rin's chest at the acknowledgment of his improvement, of his abilities, being told without the precise words that Amaimon trusted him to defend Mephisto, made a wide smile spread across his face.

"Okay, I'm ready when you are," Rin said, getting a grunt from Amaimon.

This time, when the snap to teleport them came, Rin was ready for it, not feeling the usual vertigo as much and following after Amaimon as soon as he took off.

"This is Lucifer's domain," Amaimon called back to him while Rin shivered at the mention of the king of light.

He remembered his one encounter, the dead-eyed gaze that met him through a gilded mask and the scent of rot hanging heavy in the air between them.

That day, he'd launched himself at Lucifer in a furious attack, determined to do anything to stop the being who'd enabled Shima to kidnap Izumo for the Illuminati's experiments. After experiencing the power Amaimon wielded, Rin knew how laughable his attempt had been. Mephisto's words, how he'd said even _he_ couldn't fight Lucifer, rang back at him, and Rin couldn't help wondering how they would survive if Lucifer decided to just bring him straight to Satan.

Worrying about it wouldn't change their course, though, so Rin shoved the fear down to focus on running.

Now that they were in his domain, it meant they would be traveling by foot the whole way again. Rin readied himself for another who knew how long of leaping over mountain ledges, realizing it _could_ get worse. Where before they'd at least been going across mostly flat ground, now, he had to launch himself through a minefield of boulders and over deep crevasses.

Amaimon kept them on a path traveling along the base, not ascending up the peaks. Every now and then they came along another hot spring, the steam wafting over Rin's cheeks in a brief caress before the cold of the mountain air replaced it again.

Rin tightened his arms around Mephisto, wincing as he caught a trace of the degradation peeking from under his collar. His mood dragged with the thoughts welling up now that he didn't have any conversation to keep them at bay.

Just beneath the layers of Mephisto's suit was a trail of dark rot creeping up over his skin. If Rin pressed too hard, would it worsen those marks? If it was showing on the surface, did that mean it was already eating away at his organs? How long did he actually have?

His hair where it scratched at Rin's cheeks felt more like fragile straw than anything. Fear wormed into his heart that if he accidentally yanked at it, it would fall from Mephisto's scalp or break apart in his hands.

Was this what Lucifer looked like beneath his mask?

If Rin couldn't still feel a faint warmth and hear the slow, even heartbeat behind his ribs, then he would think Mephisto had died in his arms.

They just had to make it to Lucifer, Rin told himself, ignoring everything that might go wrong. If Lucifer didn't have a solution, he didn't know what they would do.

He did know one thing. Even if Lucifer didn't have the answer, as long as Mephisto still had a heartbeat, he wouldn't stop trying to save him. He'd come too far not to.

It was too much to worry about now, not when it wouldn't help anything.

Amaimon didn't know how long the process would last. Rin flicked his gaze from the route he traversed to take in the silent figure bounding over the treacherous mountain. He'd been in Assiah when Mephisto's... other half, his claim, had died.

There was so much Rin didn't understand about being a demon yet. Getting claws and fangs, his tail, the flames, it had only been the peak of a vast laundry list of things he had to learn now. The claim was just the newest thing he never thought would be so important.

A shudder went through his body that had nothing to do with the cold. The memory of Iblis, of the soft press of her cheek to his and the way she'd shoved against his body like she would eclipse him if he let her had his teeth itching to extend.

She didn't have any _right-_ Rin shook his head free of the phantom touch, though it took sucking in a deep breath to convince his body to relax. Catching the scents of the strange air he moved through didn't help settle him, too alien and filled with potential threats in every faint trail. So, Rin focused on Amaimon and Mephisto, feeling his hackles soothe until he'd put the reaction away.

That settled it. He had to ask Amaimon more about claims. What if one of his friends or Yukio hugged him wrong? Would he lash out on instinct? If some person brushed past him while he walked, would that bring out the urge to tear them apart?

Once again, his mood worsened. He'd been able to ignore so much about what made him different, made him dangerous, while he'd been amongst his friends on Assiah. But now that Rin had shed the mannerisms he needed to fit in and let loose, seen what he could do without those shackles on his abilities, it became more and more apparent just how different he was.

What had he screamed, that night everything had gone wrong? I'm human? Rin burrowed his nose into the folds of fabric that made up Mephisto's cape, eyes shuttering. He tensed his legs and darted between craggy boulders faster than any human could ever imagine moving under their own power.

Even now, having been running through terrain that would take a person hours if not longer to navigate, Rin knew he could keep going, maybe not for the length of time Amaimon could, but enough, more than enough.

Thinking about it made Rin want to feel the horror and fear that had stricken his mind that night but something stopped it from forming. Rin hid a growl of self-directed irritation into Mephisto's shoulder, adjusting and firming his grip on him as he jerked his attention away from his inner headache.

His problem was he'd had too long in his own thoughts, Rin decided. Not that he had much of a choice. At this point he almost wished something would attack them again.

Another dozen miles passed in a blur, the serene hot springs calling out to him whenever they came upon one.

Rin realized he hadn't seen anything yet, just a barren landscape echoing with their steps whenever they landed to send rocks skittering below. Was it because Lucifer had done with Iblis had? That would mean he had patrols of his own searching for their whereabouts, right?

He'd ask when Amaimon found their next rest spot.

Snow-capped ridges filled his eyes as far as he could see into the murky, unchanging sky. Rin felt small against them.

Haziness crept up on Rin, shaking him from the automatic zone he'd fallen into for who knew how long. A now familiar trembling had begun in his limbs, hands cramping from holding Mephisto in place.

Was it time? He had to keep going, should keep going, Amaimon would be annoyed if- Rin frowned, correcting his tired thoughts. Amaimon hadn't complained any of the other nights Rin's lesser endurance had given out, forcing him to sleep when he'd tried to continue at the hot spring. Amaimon, Rin had learned, was more about what made sense, not putting on a false bravado.

Stone slipped under Rin's next impact and his bones ached.

"Amaimon!" His voice rasped out of his throat from disuse but Amaimon heard him and flicked a hand at his side, darting that way in the next moment. Rin followed, a passing hope in his mind that-

-Yep, Rin grinned, touching down where Amaimon had and shivering in the steam curling around their bodies. Amaimon had found them another hot spring to rest by.

Setting Mephisto down on a dry section of earth let Rin shake his arms that had gone numb in the day of ping-ponging over a whole mountain range. He dropped next to him, head tilting back to rest on the rough stone wall and a sigh escaping his lips.

"Hey, Amaimon?" He cracked his eyes open, seeing Amaimon had been watching him in what Rin probably would have considered threatening silence if he hadn't gotten used to the long stares at his jugular by then.

"Why's it so empty here? Did Lucifer kill everything like Iblis did?"

The question loosened the eerie stillness in Amaimon and he shifted to a more natural posture, crossing his arms and humming as he answered, "No, Lucifer doesn't need to."

"Why not?" Didn't need to? Rin glanced around. What was preventing him?

"It's the same with Samael and Azazel's territories, though Azazel not as much," Amaimon said with a shrug as he snapped more junk food into existence for them, "The stronger the demon king, the less kin they have to populate their territories."

"And," Amaimon continued, gesturing to the mountains, "Very few demons can survive this area."

"Really? Why not? It doesn't seem so bad," Rin blinked as he tried to figure out what could prevent demons from living some place as neat as a hot spring."

Snickering from Amaimon had Rin shooting him a look, especially once he saw the smirk there.

"You really don't know, do you?" Amaimon said with another laugh, "Even in Iblis' territory you didn't say anything."

"Okay, what didn't I notice?" Rin grumbled, aware it was another demon thing and already preparing for whatever strange revelation he'd get this time.

Amaimon seemed to track something in the air, though when Rin looked, he couldn't see anything.

"The energy of our territories and our wards is inherently threatening to demons lesser in the hierarchy," he said, finally, "It's probably your heritage. Every other demon wouldn't last very long before they needed to leave again."

"Threatening?" Rin startled, "Like dangerous? I mean, that forest was kinda creepy but only when you told me about the whole soul-stealing thing, and it's really nice here."

A wry grin from Amaimon had Rin hiding another sigh as he waited.

"It degrades them, they weaken with every passing moment the longer they stay," Amaimon said, though it took Rin an extra moment to understand, "Unless they're kin to the king whose territory they're in, otherwise they stay in the middle lands or their own territories, if they aren't kin to a king."

It sounded like something Rin should have learned in a lecture at the Academy, but he didn't know if what Amaimon was telling him was even common knowledge to the people in Assiah or something only demons knew.

"Gotcha," Rin said to let Amaimon know he could move on. Which brought Rin to the next thing tugging at his mind.

For a reason he couldn't place, Rin wanted to hesitate. He pulled his knees to his chest, ducking his chin to stare up at Amaimon beneath his bangs. Amaimon noticed, though he didn't say anything, giving Rin time to figure it out.

He'd moved to his own spot opposite him, and something about it unsettled Rin that he chalked up to not seeing Mephisto at his side like usual.

"Can you-" Rin cut himself off, gaze dropping as he chewed at his lips, "-Why did I react like that, that whole thing with Iblis earlier?"

Even just talking about it had him wanting to both lash out and curl himself into the nearest defensive corner. He hoped Amaimon couldn't see the aborted shiver he ruthlessly crushed the moment it formed.

"Fire is greedy."

What? Rin turned his gaze up to see Amaimon, wondering what that had to do with his question.

"Iblis," Amaimon said, looking straight at Rin with his own heavy stare from gold eyes, "Is like a forest fire, warm from a distance, but all-consuming when you get too close."

The words were almost poetic in their cadence, something Rin would have never expected from someone as blunt and to the point as Amaimon. He found himself drawn in, a part of his anxiety falling away.

"Iblis knew the chances of claiming you would be slim."

Rin wanted to interrupt to ask why, still not understanding. The way Amaimon pinned him in his gaze wouldn't let him.

"She tried anyway, because that's her nature. To consume."

"And," Rin spoke up as Amaimon finished, releasing his bottom lip from his teeth when he noticed he'd bit until it bled, "That's why she did that? I still don't know why it made me feel like that."

Like he would do _anything_ to get away, to claw at her until she couldn't try it again. He hadn't felt safe until he'd been out of her grasp and back at Amaimon's side.

Was that another thing he should ask about? Amaimon had him in that unwavering stare that hid what he might be thinking about behind a cool visage.

He scratched at his wrist, hunching further over his knees and hearing his voice coming out quiet with the revealed information, "It was better, once I used what you taught me and got out of there- back by you. But if she'd tried to come closer, I think I would have attacked her. I think I would have tried to kill her."

"I'm just-" Rin sucked in a breath, worrying his sleeves between black claws, "-I'm just scared I'll do that- attack my friends- and I don't want to."

Would Amaimon even understand that fear eating holes into his mind? If demons didn't love, would Amaimon care that Rin was terrified to hurt the ones important to him if- _when-_ he inevitably lost control again?

Silence. Amaimon hadn't said anything yet. Rin pulled his gaze from the now frayed fabric of his shirt.

Wide eyes, an expression Rin would call stunned on anyone else, locked on him before blinking, startled by his attention.

Amaimon opened his mouth and nothing came out, making Rin more alert as he cocked his head, a questioning sound beginning to form.

"Yes," Amaimon said, sharp and shaking his head to send his choppy bangs slashing over his eyes where Rin could see the pupils had slivered in the irises, "If a human tries to mimic a claim your instincts will rebel, not that they could even put a claim on something, they don't have the ability."

"Oh," Rin stuttered, heart dropping in his chest at the confirmation of his fears but still bewildered by whatever was up with Amaimon. "So I shouldn't let them touch me? Ever?"

If a hug from his friends- or Yukio or if he hugged _Kuro-_ was enough to set him off, Rin didn't know how he would survive.

But Amaimon shook his head in the negative again, calmer now and back to his usual lack of expression, calming Rin in turn, "No, it has to be a dominating or possessive touch, one with intent."

Yeah, that was right. The encroaching tendrils of fear dispersed with Amaimon's words as Rin remembered he'd had plenty of casual hugs or touches with his friends that hadn't sent off the sheer sense of wrongness that Iblis' had since his awakening.

"Good. That's- that's good," Rin said, a soft exhale coming out with his slowing heartbeat.

"Thanks, Amaimon." He smiled, getting a careful nod in turn as if Amaimon wasn't sure why he thanked him but would accept it anyway. It made Rin's smile turn wry before breaking into a yawn, the journey catching up to him, finally.

He stretched and felt several pops from the curled position he'd been in, groaning as he twisted his spine before slumping. A quick glance of the ravine they'd stopped in told him he could either sleep where he was or try for the hot springs again.

Which, that wasn't a bad idea, anything to let his tail relax so he didn't have to revisit the pain of it cramping after being wound up too long.

"I think I'm gonna sleep in the water again, Amaimon," Rin said as he began peeling himself out of his clothes that had become tacky after being run in for the day.

The earlier fear that Amaimon would try to grab his tail again like he had the first time had faded now that he knew Amaimon wasn't going to push anything. Despite Amaimon offering to..._help_, he'd listened when Rin had said 'no.'

Rin let out a quiet groan when he unwound his tail, the ache not as bad as it had been, but still very noticeable.

Sinking into the water made him shudder and sigh at the heat, flicking his tail beneath the surface and enjoying the bubbles loosening the matted fur to tickle him with the sensation.

Occasional pain from the hot vents burned when he stepped over them but Rin just ignored the bright flash to his nerves to lay in the shallows with his cheek on his crossed arms.

His lids squinted open, glancing to see where Amaimon had decided to stay for the time. If he'd gone back to Mephisto's side or remained where he was.

Amaimon hadn't moved, making Rin blink his eyes open more in puzzlement. And was Amaimon zoning out again or deliberately not looking at him? Rin couldn't tell.

He'd grown used to the various empty masks Amaimon shifted between and the one he currently wore seemed somehow strained compared to the others. It wasn't like Amaimon had ever had trouble with long, uncomfortable staring before.

Another thought worried at his mind, pressing him to speak it.

"Hey, Amaimon," it drifted over the steam to make Amaimon's ears twitch, "It doesn't always feel that awful, does it?"

"No," came the slow answer as Amaimon finally looked at him. His tongue darted over his lips in what Rin would swear was a nervous fidget, "You have one with your familiar, it's not the same when you accept the claim."

Right. Rin breathed a deeper sigh of relief, dropping his forehead to his arms. He had one with Kuro, even if he couldn't see it, and he loved his familiar just as much as Yukio. Kuro had become family, and not just because he was a little piece of Shiro, but because the loyalty and affection he so freely gave Rin, the comfort they both took in being there for each other after Shiro's death.

If sharing a claim just solidified that bond he had with the people and beings he loved most, then Rin didn't mind having one.

"That's cool, then," Rin said, smile curving the corners of his mouth up at Amaimon, "I didn't think Mephisto would have something like that, but I'm glad he did."

Maybe it wasn't love in particular that demons felt, but a connection was a connection, in Rin's head.

A hitched breath stole his attention back to Amaimon and Rin frowned. He looked almost stricken, features like stone and eyes wide, while his claws dug into the sand.

But…

Rin's contented mood fell at his next thought. Would it be right to bring it up?

Had Kuro had a claim on Shiro?

He sat up, knowing he might be treading dangerous waters, and saw Amaimon tense.

"If one half dies," Rin said from a suddenly dry throat, "Does it hurt whoever's left behind?"

Maybe it was too sensitive. Rin shook his head, "You don't have to answer if I'm being nosy. Sorry."

Amaimon didn't break expression, and his voice, when it came out, was monotone, "Claims fade naturally on their own if not maintained, the feeling is something like that."

So, it was no wonder Kuro hadn't known about Shiro's death, since who knew how long it had been since his dad had even seen Kuro before it happened.

"It does hurt, then," Rin guessed, rubbing a thumb to his arm and wondering at what something like that would feel like. Would he feel it after being away from Kuro too long? When would it happen?

Did he even have that time to find out? Rin thought that, if he checked right now, the rot on Mephisto's body would have spread just in the time they'd been talking.

"Wait," a flash of memory pricked at Rin's mind and fell from his lips before he could stop himself, "If you were in Assiah, how did you know Abdux- er, Abduxuel died? I thought it was just him and Mephisto with the claims on each other?"

Hissing sent him jolting in the water, bared fangs and glowing eyes making Rin backpedal at the warning snarl from Amaimon.

Shit! Rin cursed internally, rewinding his _stupid_ question in his mind and realizing he should have known it would get a reaction like that after the one about Behemoth had done the same.

"Sorry!" Rin burst out, guilt making him flush in shame at stepping on something that clearly bothered Amaimon like that- hell, if someone had asked him a question about Shiro, he'd be getting defensive, too.

"Sorry," he repeated, clenching his eyes closed, "You don't have to answer that, it's none of my business."

He'd gotten so used to Amaimon answering every dumb question that came into his head. Had become comfortable in his nosiness, in the familiarity that had grown between them. He'd forgotten Amaimon wasn't his teacher, wasn't Yukio, _was_ a who knew how old demon king that had buttons and boundaries Rin apparently couldn't keep from tripping straight into every day since they'd stopped fighting and started living in each other's pockets.

Nevermind that his question was insensitive even by human standards and _why_ had Rin decided it was alright to ask him that?

The growling tapered off, but Rin still waited for an attack or warning or threat and held his breath for it.

His heart beat erratically, the sound almost covering the thudding in Amaimon's chest and the steady rhythm in Mephisto's that he strained his senses to pick up.

"It," the word seeped from Amaimon's mouth, serpentine, "Had _nothing_ to do with a claim."

Rin wanted to flinch again but strangled the urge because Amaimon had told him not to be prey. Sucking in a deep breath allowed him to raise his head so he could gauge how upset Amaimon actually was.

At least his eyes weren't glowing, Rin saw when he looked and had to hide another wince.

"A king's death," Amaimon said, slow and deliberate, "Is not like any of the worms that exist in Gehenna or Assiah."

Why? Rin tried to ask, but he couldn't make the question form. Amaimon picked up on it anyway, bowing forward over his knees where he sat to glare beneath his bangs.

"These vessels are meaningless," to reinforce his point, Amaimon gouged a claw through his palm, taking it out to flick the blood free while he healed, "To truly die, our demonic hearts need to die."

Yeah, Rin remembered the importance of protecting his heart, hand coming up to press at his chest as if he could feel it when he knew it resided in his sword.

"It's never happened before Abduxuel," Amaimon lost some of the ire in his posture. Rin thought the expression he wore might be called weary and his own mood fell with the sight of it.

Amaimon's gaze drifted to where Mephisto lay before he seemed to deflate, tension leaving him almost slumped and Rin floundering for something to say.

"You can't kill a concept," Amaimon said, muted to match the dull shadows over his irises from his shuttered lids, "But, you can erase the personification representing one."

Licking at his dry lips gave Rin the chance to think through what he would say this time, "And you- I remember you said people forgot him, right? Only you guys remember him?"

A nod in confirmation came from Amaimon. He seemed to be made of the same stone he sat on.

"When he died," Amaimon began after awhile where Rin thought he might have considered the conversation finished, "We all felt it."

Rin listened as the picture of that day slipped free like blood from stone out of Amaimon. Warmth, where he hadn't expected any.

* * *

He flicked a stone into a still lake and _hated_.

The wounds to his vessel had long faded, but he rubbed a clawed finger over where one had been like he could feel the phantom pain all over again.

There was no retribution he could take, no way to come out the victor in any confrontation.

Egyn would laugh the same way he'd done the first time and turn every attack he made into so much muck to drag him down.

_'You'll drown in the same mud you came from.'_

Amaimon felt the familiar urge to destroy at the memory of Egyn's last words to him before he'd fled. He let the earth beneath him rumble before the new ripples in the water made him stop.

Now, after years roaming Assiah, Amaimon still couldn't think of a way free from that mire.

He'd been infected by something he didn't have a name for.

Assiah was empty of anything to keep him entertained for long, but Gehenna had soured for him, too.

Attempting to go to Samael or track down Abduxuel had yielded nothing, the demon in Samael's servitude revealing they, too, had gone to Gehenna.

What was Samael even doing in Gehenna? The curiosity had nearly led Amaimon back there. He knew how bored Samael was of their world, only returning when Abduxuel managed to convince him every century or so or Lucifer called him back.

Samael's humans kept him entertained, another mystery Amaimon didn't think he would ever understand. Their mayfly lives and fragility made them worthless to play with. What was the point of toying with them when one slip-up would pop them like the bubbles gathering on the shore edge.

They bred quickly and died just as fast.

Still...

Amaimon plucked at a blade of grass, feeling the life inside it trying to expand, the roots digging into the black sand of the shore and searching for the fuel necessary to perform its function.

At the end of it all, humans and plants and everything else on Assiah would return to the earth until the earth returned to the cosmic dust it had formed from. Whether he would also return to that existence was something only Samael knew.

He could at least enjoy the things humans created while they were around to make them, he understood that much. Amaimon snapped and brought out some of the new sweets they'd invented in the centuries he'd been in Gehenna, humming with pleasure at the burst of flavor on his vessel's tongue.

_The collapsing of a star, void eaten, dissolved, vanished like it had never been-!_

Space reformed as Space-Time.

Amaimon became aware of a long keen splitting the air and birds taking flight from the trees in a panicked cacophony.

Ragged cries escaped his mouth. He shuddered on the ground and clawed into the earth as if he could escape the knowledge that had been torn from his mind, new knowledge shoved into place as if it had always _been_.

_No!_

Samael _hadn't_ always-

_Abduxuel_ had been-

What was-

He didn't understand!

His chest ached with the panting breaths heaving through him as he hyperventilated, eyes staring, shot open wide but unseeing, at the still waters.

How could they be still when his entire world had just been sundered?

_Gehenna_, he had to go to Gehenna. His legs jerked as if on puppet strings when he rose, gaze darting around the clearing and shaking where he stood, frozen for another moment in indecision.

A wrenching gasp, Amaimon snapped and vanished.

The eternal skies of Gehenna greeted his eyes but he didn't pay them attention, claws flexing at his sides as he tried to figure out where to go.

Samael's territory? Abduxuel's? They were the same-

No! They hadn't been the same, so why-?

He didn't _know_. But Lucifer would. Lucifer's territory remained fixed, it hadn't shifted like space-time, light remained constant.

Amaimon snapped again to appear at the closest point to Lucifer's, bolting over the edge of the wards and putting every ounce of energy he had into his vessel that it could handle without ripping apart.

His body strained to its limits, taking him over mountains and up into the icy peaks as the distance passed in a chaotic blur he couldn't remember if he tried.

Soon, the gleaming palace at the top of the tallest mountain formed from the clouds, Amaimon bursting from the last layer of mist that froze to his flushed cheeks with the subzero temperatures.

But it wasn't the cold that had his hands shivering when he pushed open the doors at the entrance, it was the scents he picked up. Samael was there, along with Egyn, Lucifer, and older traces of Iblis, Astaroth, Azazel and Beelzebub.

How had he missed that everyone had congregated at Lucifer's, even if only three of them were there now?

And, if the others had been here, then where was Abduxuel?

Bright light, the same Lucifer always kept his palace swathed in, had Amaimon's eyes squeezing shut until he could adjust, moving based on memory and smell.

"Amaimon." He stopped at the sound of his name, insides hardened like cold stones weighing him down.

When he jerked his gaze to the source, confusion leadened further within his gut.

"Lucifer?" Amaimon couldn't say anything else, staring up into the emotionless gaze of the king of light now pinning him in place.

"Samael is further ahead," Lucifer said, voice betraying _nothing_.

Then, "Welcome home, Amaimon."

He'd left before the last syllable dropped from Lucifer's mouth, following the scent trail to closed doors and throwing them open the moment he reached them.

Abduxuel's deep green eyes stared back at him and Amaimon released a shrieking hiss, unable to stop.

_Wrong_. It was _wrong!_

"Why do you look like him?" Amaimon snarled, fangs bared with the confusion and horror staining the blood in his veins black.

Samael stared back from the shadows of the dark room, but he did it through Abduxuel's eyes.

Amaimon flicked his gaze to see the gold iridescent sheen that usually crowned the deep blue of Abduxuel's hair replacing the lighter purple that _should_ be on Samael.

And the rest of the scene revealed itself.

Utter chaos. Everything that could be destroyed, had been, the room torn as if by a wild animal to leave the shattered remains tossed around like a tornado or tsunami had been through.

Only Samael stood amongst the wreckage, still silent and refusing to stop staring at Amaimon from eyes that _didn't belong to him._

His naked body showed signs of rapid healing. Familiar bruises Amaimon had on his own from the spreading rot told of almost total degradation. He'd never _seen_ Samael so degraded before, his abilities as king of time prevented it.

So why?

Samael stepped aside and the darkness parted around his feet. Amaimon sucked in a harsh breath.

"The king killer took him," empty words left Samael but they didn't make _sense_, "A curse that the humans will start to call briar rose syndrome, once they learn about it."

On the floor, the desiccated husk of a degraded vessel eclipsed his vision. Nothing inhabited it, no trace of the being who'd possessed it, not even his scent.

There wasn't anything to mark that it had belonged to Abduxuel except Samael's words and the shape he'd recognize anywhere.

Amaimon snapped his gaze back to Samael, rage sharpening his tongue as he lashed out in fury, "He's inside you! I can sense his aspect- why is he inside you?"

The hollow look vanished from Samael, snarl twisting to bare bristling fangs as he brought his power down on Amaimon in the next instance.

His power, and Abduxuel's.

It crushed him to the floor, drove him down until he ached and he thought his bones might be crumbling to dust under the strain.

Just as quickly as it started, Samael drew up short, pulling his aspect- _Abduxuel's_ aspect- back into his vessel. A long hiss like a vicious serpent cut across the space between them as Amaimon gagged while his body healed.

Accusation dripped like poison in the glare he sent towards Samael, unable to do more as he shuddered where he lay.

Samael inhaled a long breath through his nose, warped features fading back to that hollow chill Amaimon had found him with.

"He's gone. I'm the king of space and time now," that answered _nothing_. Samael continued as if he wasn't aware of that fact at all, "And we'll speak no more of this."

Bitterness welled up with the scream he wanted to loose behind his lips, but it never broke free, caught like Amaimon was by Samael.

"I'm going back to Assiah," Samael said, stepping towards Amaimon, the bare pads of his feet crunching over splintered glass to leave red footprints until he stood overhead, "I know you've been there for some years now. You may join me or stay here."

Join him? A thin breath seeped from his lungs and past his bloodstained lips, mouth gaping silently until Samael shrugged, body healed as if the rot had never been.

"Fine then, goodbye, Amaimon."

Snapping brought one of Abduxuel's keys to his hand.

The last Amaimon saw of him was his tail where it hung, the end disheveled and knotted, by his ankles. Then Samael was through the entrance to the room.

Back to Assiah.

Clicking from the door shutting startled Amaimon from his stupor, jerking in place as if attacked.

His gaze flicked around, landing on the body, cold, lifeless, still nothing in it to say that it had once held the aspect of space, once held Abduxuel.

Amaimon crawled to his knees.

He fled.

* * *

Waking came with the smell of petrichor, the scent he now associated with earth, with Amaimon. It enveloped him, a balm over the frustration he always felt with the return of his mind to the endless waters of his prison.

A hazy memory of a previous waking drew him away from sinking too deep into the scent.

He'd heard _Abduxuel_, heard his voice, the familiarity obvious as he spoke to someone whose response he couldn't make out.

That was fine. He didn't need to know who he spoke to in this instance, just that he had his voice memorized and hungered for more. Now, he just needed his appearance, since taste and touch were likely out of the question until he escaped this cage.

Though it was impossible to say why he'd remembered Amaimon and Abduxuel over another's existence, he wondered where they were now. Was it possible they searched for a way to free him? Or, were these memories out of date and some rift had occurred between them to make that unlikely.

It could be that neither was in his life anymore, nevermind that, without something like the knowledge that he'd shared a claim with Abduxuel, he had no idea what his connection to Amaimon could be, if he had one at all.

He huffed a slightly harder breath that tried to be a wry snort. So far, of the names he knew, both began with an 'A'. What were the chances that the second voice's name also started with that letter?

Maybe, if he discovered the second voice's name and concept it would reveal who Amaimon was to him, too.

Any memory, good or bad, would be welcome, as long as it gave him something to go on, some clarity, and, potentially, some way free from his prison.

The weariness that usually dragged at his mind had faded somewhat after the last bout of unconsciousness. While it was nice to be able to think with less of that mental haze, the sheer boredom he faced almost had him wishing he could sleep again until his voices or a memory came back.

As if because of his desire for them, a ripple went across the water. He flicked an impatient gaze around, hearing pricked for who would show up first and if he would see their faces again.

Would it be Amaimon? Or the second voice? Maybe he would even see Abduxuel this time.

"Ngh." The second voice, where-?

From the sounds of it, the second voice was uncomfortable. Could it be because of the fighting he'd done in the last appearance? Was the story progression linear after-all?

An outline sketched itself into the clouds. The second voice, blue eyes squinted in mild pain and sleeve torn to reveal a dislocated shoulder. So, it _was_ a linear timeline, at least, the last few sequences had been.

Blue eyes turned to him, still as vibrant as they'd been the first time he saw them, and he spoke, "Oh, you're awake, are you okay now?"

Amaimon. He must be talking about Amaimon. But why was he just holding a hand to his shoulder? He'd seen him heal from far worse, a sentiment echoed by Amaimon's question, "What are you doing?"

Then he understood, watching the sheepish expression on the second voice's face as he asked for help setting his shoulder back in place.

Sharp laughter from Amaimon had a chuckle of his own wanting to form. How sweet. Again, the dichotomy of a being who could fight through hordes of enemies and roar to shake existence yet couldn't pop his own shoulder back into place or know about claims and keeping his tail hidden sent amusement bubbling in his chest.

Another moment passed, a scowl on the second voice's face in response to the laugh, and a new outline sketched itself into the sky.

Ah. He wanted to purr as Amaimon took shape, seeing the humor in those brilliant gold eyes where they looked at the second voice even while his expression didn't reflect it.

He watched the simple teaching moment between the two, Amaimon efficient and covering his bases so that the second voice would know how to both set his own or someone else's arm if the situation arose again.

Still, seeing them together and not just one or the other was revealing new information to him about their dynamic that words alone hadn't done yet.

The second voice was utterly _oblivious_ to the effect he had on Amaimon.

His lips twitched, wishing he could dissolve into laughter at the slivering pupils in those gold eyes when the second voice put his hands on Amaimon's arm to reset his shoulder.

Beautiful, and a fascinating development to boot. It seemed the tail incident had more than one casualty. Although, a glance to the second voice showed faint bruises darkening in shadows under his eyes, so perhaps it wasn't that he'd forgotten the lesson on etiquette, but that he was too exhausted to notice anything, even those things right in front of his nose.

They moved past it without incident, though he didn't think the second voice would be up for anything with the way he stumbled to his feet. A moment later and he was proven correct, Amaimon noticing the wince of pain the second voice tried to cover up, arms crossed over his chest and rubbing at what must be the source.

His sudden request for a bath had the problem taking shape in his mind, though he could see Amaimon still hadn't connected the dots.

Time skipped with a snap of Amaimon's fingers and reformed to show confusion that faded to shock on the second voice's features.

"There's hot springs in this area, is this good enough?" He wanted to laugh again at Amaimon's defensiveness. Though if one were to ask him, a good bath wouldn't be some hole in the ground. Not that he would be spending any amount of time in a bath once he freed himself from his prison.

"It's perfect!" Bright, unfiltered joy on the second voice's face almost distracted him from the way he began to strip down.

And the way Amaimon's pupils dilated before slivering again at the sight.

He would have mocked him for the reaction if his own breath hadn't caught when he saw that black tail unwinding from the second voice's waist to shiver and coil where it touched the water.

Like spilled ink on a blue canvas.

Oh.

That absolute _tease_. But he could tell by the way the second voice sighed and released the tension knotting his spine that it was completely unintentional. He really had no idea.

Had he grown the damn thing yesterday? How could he be so naive to-

-Even worse, it was even worse than he'd suspected.

Tears in those blue eyes where he looked down at his tail, a hand reaching out to fix what looked like a painful kink in the appendage.

Amaimon didn't say anything to stop the chain of events.

A moan left the second voice's mouth that made him want to let out one of his own, though his was of utter frustration and very much echoed by Amaimon if the glaze in his eyes was anything to go by.

Unbelievable. His chest tightened, unable to look away as Amaimon couldn't, fixated on the sight of the second voice sinking into the water and one step from pouncing.

But the second voice collapsing under water to scream into the bubbles halted things, even more once he jerked back out and stumbled to the far side. Surely Amaimon would follow after him now. He made such a tempting sight, disheveled and red-faced where he tried to hide.

"Don't ask," he said to the confusion Amaimon started to voice, hand jerking out of the water to halt his advancement, "Just get in the water, please."

Hmm, get in the water? If he'd been capable of it he would be purring. By the way Amaimon didn't just vanish his clothes, instead made a show of taking them off and stretching a lovely green tail out behind him, he shared the thought going through his mind.

Tension sparked between them, Amaimon prowling deeper in with an audible purr and the second voice's pupils dilating, betraying whatever reluctance he might have had as flimsy at best.

Just when he thought things would get interesting, the second voice spoke, "Hey, we should get - in here, too."

What? His bafflement was mirrored on Amaimon's face. A name. A third person? Who? Or was the second voice speaking about something else.

Gold eyes darted towards him from the sky, a strange emotion in them that he couldn't decipher before they were back on the second voice again.

"Why?" Exactly.

"Why not?"

Absolutely unhelpful. A long sigh left his mouth, knowing he was unlikely to ever get the answers to the questions the second voice created just by existing.

Amaimon came to the same conclusion, snapping his fingers, though what the snap had done wasn't clear.

What _was_ clear was the look of horror overtaking the second voice's features, halting any play that might have happened.

Just as the second voice opened his mouth, the record skipped, their outlines fading.

No! He tried to snarl, knowing answers lay just out of reach, that there was _something_ in that conversation that was what he sought, possibly even clues about who he was.

Come back! Fury seared through his lungs, eyes blown wide and pupils darting to search the clouds.

Energy poured from him, taking shape as an internal desire to bring his voices back and continue the scene. He needed to know!

Who were they talking about?

Who-?

"-ow much longer- think he can last? It's only been a few days."

Back, they were back. But the desperation for their return had sapped him of his strength and he could feel that _miserable_ exhaustion again. He just had to hear the remainder of this conversation, then he would be satisfied for the time being.

Just let him finish it.

"I don't know," Amaimon, though his and the second voice's outlines didn't appear, back to only their voices reaching him, and even those were faint, "- never told me how long it took."

Without the context, it was difficult to say what or who they spoke of. He hung onto every word anyway.

"It sounds like he told you about as much as me, huh," the second voice said, somber, and he could imagine the expression that would be on his face.

This third person they spoke of, possibly. Someone they both had history with and who's mention was enough to derail other moods.

"Yes." Amaimon sounded defeated in his admission, "No one knows -'s mind."

So the person they spoke of was still alive but not with them, not that he could guess why.

Sharp laughter out of the second voice broke him from organizing his information threads and he gave a slow blink as he tried to understand where the humor came from.

"Well, that'll be a good lesson for him when we save him, then, won't it." _Save_ him! The web tightened further, he knelt on the cusp of tying it all together. Their journey together shared a purpose, it wasn't just the execution hanging over the second voice's head that drove them on.

He was _so close_ to understanding, if not himself, then at least his two voices. But his breaths had started to come slower, eyelids shuttering, though he fought to keep them open a moment longer.

"Next time he wants to hold back important stuff we'll remind him he literally almost died the last time he did it."

Confidence, the horror that had tainted the second voice gone to be replaced by hope. How very…human of him.

His ears barely picked up the next words.

"-ink I'm good to sleep now, if it's safe here."

Water muffled his senses and his mind sunk under, but he knew the second voice had nothing to fear, not with Amaimon keeping guard.

"-on't let me drown, okay Amaimon?"

_Don't let me drown._

Soft sighing drew him from his sleep an uncounted time later. Something about that sigh pricked his attention. It sounded…

Eyes opened just as an outline etched its impression in the clouds.

Amaimon, and he looked strangely dazed where he lay on a raised earthen slab in the hot spring. His reptilian tail swayed overhead in a way that suggested arousal.

But he hadn't been the one to sigh so where…?

Another outline emerged. He knew what had Amaimon looking like that now.

The second voice stretched on his side, tail moving in enticing coils over the leg he'd trapped with it in his sleep.

And he-

Hmm.

That vulnerable neck bared, tilted onto the surface of whatever he lay on as droplets of water traced their way over the pulse he could barely make out there.

What a _wonderful_ sight to wake to.

Now the only question was what Amaimon would do with the gift he'd been presented.

Hitched breath just as the second voice opened his eyes, fully waking and face going a brilliant red as he must have become aware of his actions. Good, now Amaimon would likely-

"Are you awake now? Why did you stop?" No! He shouted internally, not that it would do any good, being unable to reach them with his words, but Amaimon wouldn't get anywhere if he gave the second voice an opening like that.

As expected, the second voice panicked like he'd done in the last scene and fled to the deeper waters again

"Did you want help?" Oh, Amaimon. He could cry. Was he a demon or not?

What was he waiting for? A written invitation?

"No! No, I'm ok, I'm good." See? That was what happened. The urge to shake both of his voices was strong and also pointless when he couldn't do anything to change things, trapped as he was.

The situation was still salvageable. It wasn't as if the two were being chased, and if they could afford to sleep comfortably wherever they were, then they had more than enough time to continue where they'd left off.

By Amaimon's pout and the way the muscles of his body went deceptively lax, he had picked up on that thought too. Any moment now and he would get things back on track. The second voice saw, tensing as he darted his gaze around. That beautiful tail of his wound in nervous patterns in the water and he shifted in the sand.

Then he jerked as if shocked, falling backwards with a yelp and a crack of his skull to a rock when he landed.

He closed his eyes, breath leaving his nose in a long exhale, already knowing he wasn't going to get what he wanted. This newest torment was possibly the most painful yet.

"Didn't I teach you how to fall right? Do you need more lessons?" Yes! Hands on training would surely be enough to get things moving along.

"No- yes, I want more fighting lessons, I just woke up and panicked," the second voice said. He was going to tear his hair out and scream, if only in his head. What was holding the two of them back? The signals between them couldn't be clearer if they were strung together in glowing lights.

Conversation moving onto food settled it, there would be no play. Even as Amaimon rose and stepped from the water in a way that would have had him pulling him to the nearest horizontal surface- preferably a bed- if he'd been with them, the second voice persisted with his infuriating avoidance.

What could this scene reveal to him that he'd woken to see it? Because so far all it had done was shown him his two voices would be the death of him if they kept at it the way they were.

It could be that there was no rhyme or reason to his waking, that it was random and worked on his own energy levels. But there also existed the chance that he woke to each scene of his two voices' lives to gather some bit of information that could help him remember himself and his name.

Until he knew for certain, he would have to act as if the latter were the case and stay vigilant for any clues.

Finding out the second voice was something of a talented chef certainly added nuance to his character, and, if Amaimon's sudden excitement was anything to go by, he would be getting the second voice to make him a cake once he escaped.

More hints to another person peppered their conversation. Possibly the same one they were trying to save, as they both knew the individual they spoke of, but there was nothing to say that they didn't have more shared acquaintances.

"It was a Christmas cake, it made - happy."

Something in the way Amaimon said that, the way his features changed, made him seem wistful.

A shift occurred in the tone of their conversation, sobering after the previous humor.

"Hey," the second voice sounded hesitant, "Did you ever read the fairytale 'Sleeping Beauty' before?"

That was an odd thing to bring up. Could the second voice be a nephilim? His tail suggested otherwise but he couldn't see how else he would have such a grasp of humanity and know so little about demons. There was also that Amaimon didn't seem the type to bother with a nephilim, not as strong as he was.

"Is that a human story?" Case in point, Amaimon displayed the typical lack of knowledge of humans that most demons had, even when they'd lived among them for centuries.

And he still didn't know why the second voice had brought up a human fairytale.

"It's just kinda funny, what we're doing and what's up with him." _Who?_ Another clue into the purpose of their journey. He focused on the words, pushing the many possibilities aside in case he missed something vital. This could lead to the answer he craved.

I guess all that doesn't mean anything, but - being cursed to sleep reminded me about it."

Could they…

Were they talking about _him?_ He certainly slept enough in this prison, but he still woke, even if he couldn't move. He also didn't know if he even had a connection to his two voices, hadn't had a memory of interacting with them yet. And neither had spoken of Abduxuel, at least, not since he'd remembered his name, so there was nothing to say that they had a connection through that avenue, either.

"How did the story end?" How strange a being Amaimon was. He'd never seen such innate curiosity from another demon, though he couldn't say how he knew that, his memory refusing to bring up specifics.

Not that the second voice's answer was going to bring Amaimon any clarity, not with the little understanding of humans he had. "She gets saved with true love's kiss, it breaks the curse, she wakes up, and they live happily ever after."

Amaimon had taken up rubbing his thumb raw in a groove of whatever he rested on in an odd habit. What was even odder was the contemplation he seemed to be giving the simple story. The human ability to create was endlessly fascinating but not something Amaimon gave the impression of being interested in.

Love, less so. The concept was laughable, not even as real as the fairytales humans came up with.

"That won't work for -." That Amaimon had suspected he'd find a solution to whatever problem they had in a human story was baffling, but it could have been desperation making him seek out any available option. He knew something of desperation.

The second voice didn't seem to think the story held the answer they needed either, speaking as his lack of knowledge about demons made itself apparent again. "Well, yeah, I didn't think it would. But why not?"

"Demons don't love, it's a vague human concept we don't understand." Just so, but something about how Amaimon said it made it sound as if the answer was rote, that he repeated someone else's words and not his own thoughts.

"Don't love?" Yet more hints that the second voice was some kind of nephilim, one important enough to warrant an execution on his head. The contradictions just kept adding up.

"- always laughs at human love, he thinks it's funny." Love _was_ a funny concept, he felt humor escape him as a soft huff. "I don't get it. I don't get humans."

"Yeah, vague is probably a good word for it," the second voice said, a melancholy tone joining the shadow cast on his face when he dipped his chin, "You're just supposed to know it when you feel it."

Exactly the meaningless sentiment so many humans ascribed by. There wasn't a single concrete definition, no hard and fast law of the universe, for love that any could pin down in a satisfactory way.

His mind lingered there even as the second voice moved the topic. Although, hearing that Amaimon had gotten his fangs around the second voice's throat and a tongue to his pulse and _still_ had yet to take things to the next level was mind-boggling.

They were hopeless, clearly. He rolled his eyes, watching them eat in companionable silence and craving food for the first time since he'd woken. Hunger didn't accompany the craving, but he remembered taste, and at this point any sensation that wasn't clouded or deadened by his prison would be welcomed.

Any sensation. When he escaped, he would drown himself in every pleasure he'd been denied in this hell. He would not sleep for a week, a month, a year, until he'd satisfied his mind and body and knew that he'd experienced the full range of senses available to a physical vessel.

And he would track down his two voices and demand an apology for the torment they'd subjected him to with their infuriating tiptoeing around each other.

Amaimon snapping to bring out what looked like books surprised him, not considering that he might enjoy those human things, though he liked their food well enough.

It looked like the second voice was just as confused, questioning Amaimon about their source.

"They're -'s, I borrowed them." Ah, that explained it. Again, someone they both knew, and who apparently enjoyed human things enough to collect them, but he couldn't say whether it was the same person they were attempting to save or another.

"He collects them," Amaimon chewed at a sucker he'd summoned, his confusion clear on his face and apparently looking to the second voice to provide an explanation. "I don't understand why he likes them- or any of the others. Humans don't make sense."

Well, that was half the fun of humans. What was even more humorous was how the teacher had become the student between his two voices.

The second voice took the book from Amaimon, making a go at trying to parse what was so confusing about humans, though he didn't think he would have much luck in explaining it to Amaimon.

Squeaking brought his attention to the second voice's face. Was he blushing? What could the contents of that book be to get such a reaction?

"You got this from _-?_" Hmm. By the strangled question, he'd say the contents were of the carnal sort. Perhaps Amaimon was trying to restart things after-all? The second voice did look lovely with his pupils dilated in those blue irises and red staining all the way to the tips of his pointed ears.

"Wh- what confused you about this one?"

"It's the same as every other story. The humans have a problem and then make it worse." The sigh that left his lungs was as long suffering as he could make it. Amaimon was hopeless. Another _perfect_ opportunity passed by without a single attempt. "This human keeps letting the other one interfere with their courtship when they should just fight or kill the other to keep them away instead of wasting time."

He didn't know who was worse of his two voices, but he would decide when he got out and demanded their reasoning from them. Whoever had the weakest excuse would be punished without mercy for the suffering he was undergoing.

"Humans can't just go around killing each other when they get angry or we'd all be dead." The words from the second voice brought him from his spiraling thoughts that he realized were growing less coherent with rising exhaustion again. "Though I can't talk about the fighting because I got into tons growing up."

That was a curious response. "We" implied that the second voice considered himself human, but he also clearly identified as a demon. Nephilim looked more likely than ever. Really, the only way to be sure was to know whether he had a demonic heart or not. With the dangers pursuing them, the chances were good that he'd get his answer.

"It's not like we get a new vessel when we die. Once it's over, that's it."

An apt summation. His mind began to drift, the outlines of his voices became less defined.

"It's like," the image of the second voice faded in and out, only his blue eyes where they turned to him shone through, "It's like if - dies like this, he's not coming back, so it's important to save him."

At this point, the words flowed through his mind more than he comprehended them, lulling him even as he tried to refocus. This was important, he needed to know who they were talking about.

He needed...

"That's why humans do the strange things they do? Fear of death?" Amaimon had said that, his outline no longer visible.

"-don't want - to die, that's why I'm here."

Just a little longer. His eyes had closed without his say and he couldn't open them again.

"I owe him."

Amaimon spoke then about the pain of a degrading vessel, of no longer suffering it. Had he ever suffered something like that? Why did it seem familiar to him as more than theoretical?

A body that didn't degrade. A perfect vessel was- he could see why Amaimon might try to save the being who'd gifted it.

The second voice didn't seem to think so.

"-just because you don't show it the same way as I do doesn't mean you don't care."

He would have scoffed if he'd been able to. But…

Amaimon didn't deny it.

They'd faded completely, he couldn't hold out any longer.

His mind lingered on fairytales, on the humans who had crafted them, and his own existence.

Sleep took him again.

"Fire is greedy."

Hmm?

The sudden voice brought him out of his sleep.

"-, is like a forest fire, warm from a distance, but all-consuming when you get too close."

Amaimon? He opened his eyes and his voices scrawled onto the clouds above him to show them resting at what looked like another hot spring. He'd never been woken by them before, always he was awake before the ripples signified their appearance.

"- knew the chances of claiming you would be slim."

A claim attempt. He searched his memory for a previous scene that might have included one. They could have been talking about the voice from several scenes ago where the betrayal had occurred.

"She tried anyway, because that's her nature. To consume." It looked like the case. And it would explain the black rage, the threat, that the second voice spoke with when he'd told her not to touch him again.

His confusion over why he would feel such a sense of violation was right in line with his lack of understanding of claims, but he wondered how Amaimon would answer.

By the way the second voice appeared, hunched in on himself with his eyes shuttered and chin tucked to his knees, he'd say this was the first time he'd ever encountered a claim attempt he didn't want.

"It was better, once I used what you taught me and got out of there- back by you. But if she'd tried to come closer, I think I would have attacked her. I think I would have tried to kill her."

_What?_

Gold eyes widened, shaken to the core, and mirroring his own shock that struck through his chest. The second voice was still oblivious. Did he know what he'd just admitted? Did he understand at all?

And how would Amaimon take it? The revelation had come so completely unexpected, there was no way to possibly prepare for it, and yet the second voice kept speaking as if he hadn't just let Amaimon know that _not all claims_ would be unwelcomed.

Amaimon opened his mouth and nothing came out while the ridiculous, unbelievable, _impossible_ second voice finally noticed his silence.

"Yes," Amaimon said, sharp and shaking his head, though he could see he wouldn't be shaking the revealed information any time soon. "If a human tries to mimic a claim your instincts will rebel, not that they could even put a claim on something, they don't have the ability."

Oh, that poor demon. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry or both over the torment Amaimon was undergoing. Of course, it was at least half self-inflicted. He rolled his eyes as Amaimon soothed the second voice's fears about what sorts of physical contact would set off his instincts.

At this point he no longer held any pity for Amaimon. The second voice had all but thrown himself in his lap and demanded to be claimed. That they both still held back was a sign that _he_ was being punished in his prison more than they suffered.

"I think I'm gonna sleep in the water again, Amaimon." The second voice's tired words drew him from his internal grumbling and he blinked as he began peeling himself out of his clothes. Not that he would ever complain about such a sight, not with the way that black-furred tail unwound in sensual coils before his eyes, but it seemed they were resting again.

So the scene, besides revealing fascinating details into the developing relationship between his two voices, hadn't given him anything he might use to discover his name or other relevant connections.

Still, when the second voice let out a quiet groan and sank into the water, that tail flicking through the bubbles teasing the fur, he wanted to groan right along with him. The same urge, he could see, from the glaze in Amaimon's eyes where he tracked the second voice.

"Hey, Amaimon, it doesn't always feel that awful, does it?" The second voice wasn't ready to sleep yet, it seemed. But, it was understandable, if he really didn't have any experience with something of that nature, to have a few questions.

It broke Amaimon from his determined contemplation of anywhere but the second voice, though he couldn't quite cover up that he was still affected by him, if the tongue darting over his lips meant anything. "You have one with your familiar, it's not the same when you accept the claim."

For some reason a soft smile came from the second voice where he lay with his cheek pressed to his crossed arms, "I didn't think - would have something like that, but I'm glad he did."

His words rocked Amaimon to the core for the second time that scene. Hitched breath, features like stone and claws digging furrows into the sand. But why? And somehow the expression from those blue eyes seemed knowing, he didn't understand the gentleness in them or why Amaimon's shock would garner such a response.

The answer was hidden in the identity of the person they referenced whose name he didn't know.

Yet again, the second voice shifted topics, "If one half dies, does it hurt whoever's left behind?" Oh. Yes, he could see how that would be a logical line of questioning. As was his realization when Amaimon confirmed his fears.

"It does hurt, then."

Yes. He didn't know how he knew that. But it was never a pleasant experience for a claim to fade, just something one learned to tolerate. And, compared to a degrading vessel, really, what was one more discomfort?

"Wait, if you were in Assiah, how did you know Abdux- er, Abduxuel died? I thought it was just him and - with the claims on each other?"

_Abduxuel!_

He'd said-

There it was! His heart jolted in his chest, beating in a rapid pattern and he was vaguely aware of Amaimon hissing to send the second voice scuttling back in the water with stuttered apologies.

_This_ was the connection between his two voices and himself! There _was_ some string tying them all together. They knew who he was, if not personally then at least by his claim with Abduxuel.

Who was Abduxuel to them? How did he relate to their current purpose? _Would he see him next?_

"It had _nothing_ to do with a claim." Amaimon's snarled words forced his attention back to the scene, seeing the fear the second voice tried to cover up with bravado and a strong face.

"A king's death is not like any of the worms that exist in Gehenna or Assiah."

A death? A king's? Another one of those words he knew by definition but felt like he should know it by more than that, the information just out of reach and exceedingly frustrating every time it happened.

In his distraction, weariness overtook Amaimon's rage, something he didn't understand the source of or why Amaimon would feel it in the first place.

"These vessels are meaningless," he drove it home with a claw through his palm as the second voice gave an aborted flinch. "To truly die, our demonic hearts need to die."

The second voice rubbed a hand at his chest, making his eyes narrow as his mind raced through the possibilities. Could that movement mean he did in fact have a demonic heart? Was he more than just a nephilim? Or had it been a thoughtless motion brought about by the word 'heart' from Amaimon.

"It's never happened before Abduxuel." His thoughts screeched to a ragged halt at the sound of his other half's name out of Amaimon's mouth again. An internal shiver and short inhale through his nose started them up again.

All at once, the whipcord tension in Amaimon fell away, completely overtaken by exhaustion as he slumped where he sat. Those gold eyes stared straight at him, but his expression looked far away, lost in memories.

"You can't kill a concept, but, you can erase the personification representing one."

What was he implying?

What-

Dawning realization, and with it, dread welling up in his gut to burn against the back of his throat.

Of course. It was obvious, how had he not realized it sooner?

Hesitant words from the second voice, his blue gaze shadowed when it flicked to him, "And you- I remember you said people forgot him, right? Only you guys remember him?"

Abduxuel would not be saving him from his prison. His voices wouldn't be meeting up with him, wouldn't ever do more than speak his name.

He wouldn't ever feel the other half of a claim. His claim.

In the next instant, Amaimon confirmed his thoughts.

"When he died, we all felt it."

Fine.

Fine. That didn't change things. He still needed to escape, he still had only his two voices for clues into who he was and, now, as it seemed more likely with every passing scene, as his only way free.

There was more information to parse in this scene, more that Amaimon had revealed that he could use. His web had undergone a massive shift, a key player had just been taken out.

Without his notice, the scene had shifted in the clouds. He blinked, Amaimon looked more haggard, though it was hard to tell when the most he could see was faint, washed out colors and his outline where he sat.

It was his eyes. Bruises had formed there so dark even the faded quality of the image couldn't hide them.

Amaimon appeared deep in thought and the energy that surrounded him told a similar story, rippling in unsteady fissures as he hunched in on himself to glare in a baleful expression over the horizon line.

Though, if he was just going to sit there in silence, that was hardly going to make for an interesting scene. Seeing him idly pluck at a blade of grass in contemplation almost made him wonder if he should just start reviewing the previous scene for more connections when Amaimon summoned what looked like candy.

The pleased hum and delight in his eyes was charming, at least.

His energy spiked around his form just as his eyes widened and he collapsed.

What?

Features warped as a scream shattered the silence and Amaimon seized on the ground. His spine arched in a harsh contortion, claws extended to gouge the ground while his fangs bristled from a gaping mouth.

Before he could process it further, Amaimon slumped, gasping, panting where he lay and eyes sightless. His body twitched as if electrocuted until, with a sharp inhale, he jolted to his feet.

Jerking his head around like he searched for something didn't tell him what had happened either. But Amaimon snapping and vanishing to reappear somewhere else and bolting as if being chased made him push it aside to watch the scene unfold.

A wild light had entered those gold eyes. He ran in a panic, the energy in his vessel pushing until he thought it would burst and blood had begun to trickle from his nose. Was it because he was using too much, or was his vessel too degraded to take the force- a combination of both?

Time skipped, Amaimon had gained more streaks of red across his face, layering over the trails that had dried and flaked. His mouth gaped as he threw open a door and stumbled forward with closed eyes as if the light he stared at were too bright.

"Amaimon." The sudden voice made Amaimon freeze. Who? But, when he looked, all he saw was a searing light that stabbed straight through his retinas and blinded him when he tried to stare directly at the source.

Amaimon spoke a name he couldn't hear.

"- is further ahead," that patrician voice said. "Welcome home, Amaimon."

The mystery of the powerful being who radiated energy to eclipse even Amaimon's aspect and who spoke to him with such familiarity would have to join the rest of the information he needed to consider later.

Because right then, Amaimon raced from the room to whoever or whatever the source of his panic was.

Energy flared in erratic spikes as Amaimon entered another room and bared his fangs in a challenging snarl. "Why do you look like him?"

Him?

But, a survey of the space before Amaimon revealed only faint shadows that barely defined themselves as shattered objects and destroyed furniture. Who was he talking to and what had he seen that put that fear in his eyes.

The darkness that shrouded a section of the clouds parted. Amaimon sucked in a harsh breath that he wished he could echo.

Without knowing how, he could identify what had called Amaimon to this room. What had put that expression on his face.

_Abduxuel_.

The faint outline suggested the body on the floor at Amaimon's feet was just that, a shell, a desiccated husk that used to house the soul of his other half. Meaningless. There wasn't anything left to mark that the concept of space had ever occupied that corpse.

Amaimon snapped his gaze back up from the body. From Abduxuel. Fury warped his features. "He's inside you! I can sense his aspect- why is he inside you?"

Who was he speaking to? Had they been the ones to kill Abduxuel? Destroy his heart? If his fangs were able to extend in his mouth, they would be. He wanted to growl a low threat to whatever had taken his other half, and whoever had put that lost expression on Amaimon's face.

Instead, he could only do as he had the entire time since he'd woken, sit and watch, even while Amaimon quivered with barely contained condemnation for whoever else was in the room with him.

But what was the _point?_ Clearly Amaimon wouldn't be getting the answers he wanted and, by the way he'd been so easily battered to the ground, he wouldn't be forcing the answers out.

More importantly...

He wouldn't be bringing Abduxuel back. Once a demonic heart had been destroyed, that was it. It was _stupid_ to be staring at the other being in the room as if whatever he did would matter as anything other than useless revenge or lashing out like a petulant child.

If Amaimon was just going to lay there, was just going to stare with hollow, _miserable_, stupefaction, then this scene had finished with its purpose to him and he didn't know why he was even still watching.

Gold eyes widened and the pupils slivered in a slackened, bloodstained face.

That glow in his irises was the last he saw as Amaimon's outline faded from sight.

Fine.

That was fine.

He needed to think about what he'd just seen, what had been revealed.

And what it meant that Abduxuel had died.

Only the silence of his prison met his turbulent thoughts.

* * *

His words trickled to a stop in the muffled air of the steam-filled ravine.

Rin had gone quiet, solemn now that he'd revealed that bit of the past to him, that part of their history.

With Rin looking at him like a kicked dog from the water, the rest of his ire bled away.

There wasn't a point getting angry at him when he didn't know what fault lines he stepped on in the first place. He let an exasperated breath huff from his nose and slouched back the stone he sat on, wondering if Rin would sleep now.

When Rin saw that he had settled, he slowly uncurled from his tensed ball he'd been in at the edge of the pool.

"I didn't realize," came the soft reply from Rin, gaze flicking to Samael's body where it lay apart from the two of them and chewing at his bottom lip like he would say more.

Something flickered on the edge of Amaimon's senses.

Danger.

Where? He shifted, gaze sharpening.

Light reflected off iridescent scales, impossible to see until it was too late.

A serpent lashed out at Rin near the water's edge.

Another, at Samael.

Amaimon froze, indecisive, heart stuttering in his chest and eyes widening.

_Rin._

He chose.

Throwing himself towards the striking serpent, Amaimon caught it, the fangs carrying deadly venom a scant in from vulnerable flesh.

"_Agh!"_

Rin screamed.

Crushing the writhing demon in his hand didn't change that the other had struck its target.

Jerking his body around revealed Rin writhing on the ground, unable to stop his body's pained thrashing and too close to drowning.

The second demon made to strike again.

This time, Amaimon didn't give it the chance, getting his claws around its skull and turning it to slime between his claws.

His breaths came out in harsh pants, tossing the corpses of the demons to the ground and reaching for Rin.

Water soaked his clothes as he hauled Rin from the pool, ignoring the way he scored hits to him with his wild movements and casting around for some action he could take.

Without the earlier hesitation, he set Rin down again, tearing his shirt open to reveal the twin holes where he'd been bit. Already they blackened, rotting from within faster than Rin could heal.

Human. Rin was half-human, and, more than that, Rin was _sealed_.

Another cry escaped Rin's mouth, he gagged in his agony, tail whipping against the sand and Amaimon in glancing blows as he tried to fight off the poison in his veins.

Could he? Was a nephilim of Father strong enough to survive a bite from one of the serpents that inhabited Lucifer's domain?

Whimpers fell from Rin's lips, tears traced over his flushed face from unseeing eyes, pupils blown in them as he scrabbled at the ground.

What should he _do?_

What could he do? His claws twitched at his sides, damp sand digging into his knees where he knelt over Rin's trembling form, the contorted movements from earlier giving way to exhausted panting.

Was he overcoming the venom? Amaimon raked his frantic gaze over Rin and saw that no, he wasn't. The black from the initial punctures spread in a branching wave with every passing second.

They didn't have time! _Rin_ didn't have time.

If Rin died here, then what?

His mind tried to throw up countless scenarios and possibilities and each time they broke apart like so much sand between his claws. A white noise crowded his thoughts, a heated throb began in his head that made it impossible to think past.

A tail wound itself around his wrist and he hissed, jolting at the sudden touch, only to see hazy blue eyes staring up at him from beneath half-closed lids. Rin moaned, a rasping, weak sound as his tail tightened further before it slackened in shivering coils.

Rin was dying. Cold sweat broke out on his skin, putting a sheen over the gray pallor that had started to replace the healthy peach tone.

Forcing himself to look from Rin as if he could find some answer in the ravine sent frustration curdling in his gut. Samael's body seemed to mock him with its stillness, as if condemning him for failing the both of them with his hesitation. To the side and adding further salt to his wounds, were Rin's clothes where he'd left them before he'd gone into the water.

His clothes, and Kurikara.

Amaimon sucked in a short breath, freezing where he kneeled.

Soft whimpering drew his shaky gaze back to Rin, seeing he'd closed his eyes. Sweat plastered his dark hair to his skin, his head lolling to the side as he teetered on the final edge of consciousness.

The idea that had sparked in his mind solidified. Amaimon snapped and closed his fingers around the lacquered wood of the Koma sword.

He held Rin's heart in his hands, remembering the last time he'd done so, the last time he'd threatened to break it out of boredom. Brushing a pass of his thumb to the surface, Amaimon stared into the wavy reflection in the deep blue color, the same shade as Rin's eyes.

The black veins from the venom crept closer to Rin's chest, another whimper left his mouth.

Amaimon didn't have time to think about the past. He unsheathed the blade, blue flames flickering into existence.

The metal rapidly warmed his skin where he placed it on his palm.

Then he broke it.

* * *

Notes:

Mephisto, sitting in a room surrounded by flames: This Is Fine :) :) :)


	7. Purgatorio

Summary: All's quiet on the western front. The lines are drawn in the sand. Now, all that's left is to get every player into position. Some take the lull better than others.

Notes: Did she do That? She DID :D

* * *

The key clicked in the lock and Yukio turned it, thinking of his destination. He spared a brief thought that he was glad Sir Pheles' keys still worked or travel would have gotten much more time consuming for everyone.

Would they stop working when he died?

Bright light over a mountainous region interrupted that as he stepped through into his new location.

Other exorcists moved with purpose around the Russian encampment, though, as he looked closer, he saw that they all carried themselves as if they expected an attack at any moment, very pointedly not looking towards the golden glow on the horizon. The light barrier.

He exhaled in a long breath. Then he went to go find the command tent.

Sir Lewin wanted a word with him.

* * *

"Yes!"

Lewin cheered as his folded paper made it into the goal he'd built when he flicked it. The bright sound made several passing exorcists flinch and sent him giggling. What were they so wound up for? The apocalypse was coming one way or another, whether they enjoyed themselves in the remaining however long it took or not was their choice.

"You're going to give them heart attacks, Lewin," Osceola said, sigh on his lips as he went over the incoming data with the fine-toothed comb that was his brain.

From his side, Lucy snorted, taking a swallow of the tea she'd brought in a thermos with her. "They need something to keep them from getting complacent. It's good for them."

And what was good for the goose was good for the gander, after-all. Or whatever colloquialism fit the analogy he was going for. Lewin leaned back in his fold-out chair, glancing around to see if his special guest had made it yet.

There, amongst a sea of uniforms, was the kid now, walking towards their tent with a placid expression that he just knew hid discomfort.

Yukio Okumura, he had discovered, was almost as interesting as a demon.

He saw when Yukio caught sight of him and waved to call him over, "Over here, Okumura!"

That pulled Osceola's attention away from his data and Lucy from her notes. Lewin felt amusement bubble up in his chest that, in the absence of his brother, the belle of the ball had become the human twin.

"Sirs," Yukio said when he made it to them, that quick mind of his apparent as he scanned the setting with sharp eyes without letting on what he thought.

"Got a chance to look at the gate yet?" Lewin asked, partly to give him an excuse to see the thing again, and partly so he could see what Yukio's reaction to it would be.

Those blue eyes flicked to the ever-present golden glow that eclipsed the camp and a frown twitched at Yukio's lips before he answered. "No, I came straight here."

Awesome. He stood, kicking his chair back and grinning. "Cool, take a walk with me, Okumura- we'll catch you guys later!"

Lucy gave him a grunt of acknowledgment and Osceola a polite goodbye.

As they walked, he hummed some random tune to keep the silence away and because he was happy to get an excuse to pick apart Yukio's brain- not that he would be saying that to the anxious guy, but it had him feeling downright giddy.

The silence persisted, Yukio seeming unwilling to speak, so he would have to break the ice.

"I hear you're all moved into your new place, you liking it alright?" He kept his voice bright, listening to see the effects of his prodding.

"Yes sir," the pinnacle of Japanese politeness hard at work, was Yukio Okumura. "Thank you for asking."

It would be interesting to see what Yukio thought of the barrier. Lewin kept up the idle chatter, mind focused on the light through the evergreens as they left camp. The golden glow made itself apparent even in the bright dawn, a certain tone that drew him like a moth to flame- or would that metaphor work best for the king of insects? Of fire?

They arrived, breaking through the last outcropping of trees to the overlook of the plane below. Nestled in the center was the gate. He grinned, hearing the gasp from Yukio, and turning to see the look on his face.

"It's been there for a few days now, nothing in or out of it, and we can't see through to the other side, not even with every bit of technology we can dig up pointed at it." Was it wrong that their inability to pierce the barrier was making him excited instead of furious or worried like it had Arthur and the rest of the Order?

Down at the base, exorcists and researchers scurried around like little black ants. He'd been down there earlier, poking and prodding at things until an exasperated researcher had sent him away.

"Things have been quiet everywhere since most of the demons left Assiah," Lewin said with a hum. "You've been keeping busy?"

"Yes," came the slow response, Yukio recovering from the shock he'd gotten from seeing the barrier. "Classes have kept everyone at the cram school busy, we still have to prepare for the exorcist exams and the exwires have their regular classes to go to as well."

That was funny. He laughed, hands on his hips to Yukio' startled expression. "The apocalypse might be here any day now and kids still have to go to school, right?"

Not that he didn't know the feeling, having been a student when the infamous Blue Night happened. The excitement of the whole thing had made it almost impossible to concentrate on studying, not that Osceola hadn't made sure he kept at it under dire threat of punishment if he didn't.

A non-committal sound left Yukio. "They've pushed up the exam date to get more exorcists in the field."

More exorcists, all with nothing to do when their main purpose for being was in another unreachable dimension. Really, what the Order was doing was getting more bodies for the frontlines. Time would tell if it would work in their favor or not.

"What do you think of the barrier?" He said to change the topic, fiddling with the frayed edges of his coat and rocking back on his heels.

Blue eyes blinked at him behind his glasses, Yukio searching for an answer to give. "It's, er, ominous, sir."

"Hah! Yeah," he scratched at his cheek, scanning the opaque barrier again. "That's one way to put it."

But not the way he'd put it.

"I think it's beautiful." Lewin let a soft smile scrawl over his face, even when it made Yukio go silent again.

Another moment passed. Yukio shuffled at his side.

"So, why did you call me here, Sir Lewin?" Yukio finally spoke with what was clearly a struggle for politeness' sake.

Ah, he'd picked up on that. The barrier wasn't the reason he'd been called all the way out to the Russian wilderness. Just a fun perk. Good.

"Call it future planning," Lewin said and kept smiling when it made a wariness fall on the younger Satan Spawn's shoulders, "I've got something- a task- that, if this all blows over, you're the only one capable of."

Those blue eyes narrowed, his grin stretched.

"Let's talk details, then you can decide if you're up for it, hm?"

* * *

A light barrier.

The only thing that held back all of Gehenna from flooding the physical world and turning it into a true Hell on Earth.

And that last conversation with Sir Lewin.

Yukio contained a shiver, shoving the knowledge of what was coming down as he neatened his lesson notes for the day on the desk.

Today he had to break the news to the exwires. He winced, already knowing the explosions that were going to come from Izumo and Bon. Patting his case to assure himself the headache pills were there let him breathe a steadying sigh.

Noise in the hall prepared him for the door cracking open to reveal Bon, Konekomaru, and Shima, the tail end of their conversation reaching his ears.

"-no way in hell anyone's up for a party, Shima," Bon growled, stomping to his seat and dropping into it.

A chorus of 'hi, Mr. Okumura' and various iterations of greetings sounded that he gave a simple response back to.

"The tension is killing me, here," Shima said with a whine as he slumped into his own seat. "Come on, at least dinner and drinks somewhere."

While Konekomaru mediated between the two, citing needing to study alongside agreeing a dinner wouldn't be too much to do, Yukio began thinking of ways to avoid going out.

Izumo and Shiemi walking in next distracted him next and he could see the moment Shiemi's eyes lit up when she heard Shima wanted to have an outing.

"Before we begin," Yukio said to interrupt before they really got going, "I have some news about the upcoming exams."

Just as he'd thought, Bon and Izumo snapped to attention, halting talk about parties.

He coughed, getting the others focused, then spoke. "The Grigori have moved up the exam dates to the end of this semester."

Immediate explosions of shock followed.

"Are you kidding me?" Izumo shrieked, slamming her hands on the desk. "That's six months away!"

"Yeah, are they crazy?" Bon added, "Why would they-"

The room fell silent on his question as they realized why, exactly, the exams were being moved up. Yukio hid a sigh.

"Oh," Shiemi said, her soft voice breaking as she stared up at Yukio with sad eyes. The look was becoming a common sight on her face.

"Yes," Yukio said when the silence persisted too long. "So, I have a few changes to the lesson plans and I've got the new syllabus here- you all will need to decide your meisters soon."

Business as usual.

Just business as usual.

Growling stole his attention back from going over the start to the day's lecture and Yukio squinted to the source of the sound and stilled when he saw Bon, furious, glaring at the papers crinkled in his hands.

"Suguro?" He questioned, hand paused where he'd been erasing the diagram on the board.

"Dammit!" Bon snarled the curse out, slamming the papers to the desk and gritting his teeth hard enough to make the enamel squeak.

"Uh, what's wrong, Bon?" Shima said, edging away even as Konekomaru leaned in to put a calming hand on Bon's arm.

"Isn't anyone else bothered by this?"

"Bothered by what, Bon?" Izumo scoffed, though Yukio could see she had some idea by the way she bit at her lips, a nervous tick she had.

"Seriously?" Bon stood, an abrupt movement that rattled the pencil on the worn surface as he jerked his head back and forth to the rest of the exwires. "No one else is going crazy with acting like everything's _normal?_ That we're all _fine?_"

Ice solidified into a bitter core behind his ribs, a deep chill that seeped into the rest of his body until his limbs numbed and his mind froze over.

"No one else cares that we're all just sitting around in a classroom while Rin's off in _Gehenna_ with a demon that tried to _kill_ us and- argh!" Fierce brown eyes burned into his when Bon met his placid gaze, panting breaths coming from his mouth in his tirade.

"Who _cares_ about the exams we know we're not ready for when Rin could be dead or worse, in _Satan's_ hands, and we're just twiddling our thumbs and useless here!"

His hand cut across his body when he flung it in a sharp gesture, caught up in his anger and growing louder each word that tore from him. "Why aren't we doing something? Why aren't we trying to bust in there and get him back?"

"Hah!"

Bon startled, drawing up short as he broke into harsh laughter.

Yukio shivered where his palms pressed into the worn grains of the wooden desk, feeling like the grin on his face was maybe a bit wider, more wild, than he should be sending his students.

"No, go on, Suguro," he laughed again, seeing Bon flinch back and Shiemi gasp, "I want to know what else we should be doing to save Rin."

"Mr. Okumura…" Bon tried, trailing off at his glacial gaze.

"Should we try to break the barrier that Lucifer, first amongst the Ba'al, demon king of light, put up around the Gehenna Gate?" He said, voice snapping like an ice shelf splitting into the ocean.

"Or," mocking chuckles bubbled out of his lungs, "Oh, I get it! You think maybe we should go attack Satan ourselves, Suguro?"

"I- I didn't," had he hit a nerve? Yukio leaned over the desk something dark welling up in his throat from a bottomless void.

"Yuki, stop it!"

He jerked back, alarm shattering the frost coating his mind at the piercing cry from Shiemi.

She stood, panting after her outburst to the stunned silence left in her wake.

"Shiemi?"

Green eyes bore into his and he couldn't make himself move. The white fury that had whipped up in his head had blown out, leaving him aimless and searching for something to say.

A shuddering breath left Shiemi and she seemed on the verge of crying. She didn't, though a watery sheen coated her pupils and tears had built there.

"He wouldn't want us fighting each other," she said, the simple sentence cutting straight into his chest as if she'd stabbed him with a cold knife.

"Rin's going to come home." How could she know? She couldn't, he knew she couldn't.

Still, he couldn't bring himself to contradict her.

"Everyone's doing their best, even if it's just passing our tests." At that, Bon sucked a short inhale, blinking in a rapid flutter of lashes and looking about as off-kilter as Yukio felt.

Shiemi clenched her fists at her sides when she drew back, squaring her shoulders as if preparing for a fight. "Rin's fighting to come back to us, so we can't fall apart before he gets here, okay?"

"So," she said, voice losing some of its fire and her chin ducking down as if she'd just realized she'd been yelling, "We have to keep fighting, too."

"Or, not fighting, um," the tirade had ended, Shiemi folding back into her normal shy self as she fidgeted under the attention of the entire room.

Amazing. Yukio laughed again, the sound loud and drawing everyone back to staring at him like he'd grown a set of wings.

"Please accept my apologies, everyone," he began, brushing a hand through his bangs in a rough pass and adjusting his glasses, "I shouldn't have shouted."

"No, I'm sorry, Mr. Okumura," Bon said with an abashed expression tugging his brows and lips down. He bowed, sitting again, "I know there's not much else we can do, I just let the frustration get the best of me."

Izumo bumped her shoulder to Shiemi's, "Nice pep-talk, Shiemi."

Shima and Konekomaru got through their shock next, untensing from their postures and giving their own two cents while she blushed and took her seat.

The wariness faded from them and he steeled himself, it was time to get things on track.

"If we can get back to the lecture, then."

His hand didn't tremble when he drew up the next diagram on the board.

It didn't, but he wanted to.

* * *

Machines beeped, a steady light indicating their activity, though it wasn't the only noise in the room.

"It's been awhile since we've been back."

He nodded at the statement. It had been awhile. The scents in the room were all faded completely, only theirs and what they'd brought with them covering the natural smells that the environment gave off.

"You were right, Astaroth confirmed it."

A sharp pain barely registered past the ever-present agony as a needle slid home and soothing cold washed through the veins of his vessel.

"We have enough of the newest batch of elixir to last a month."

Nodding, he turned to face the form that had come to a stop at his bedside, "Thank you, Egyn."

"But," he continued, gaze going to the bright light reflecting off the miasma outside the wide windows surrounding the walls of his room, "It won't take longer than a week."

Egyn returned to getting his equipment set up. "I know, I just wanted to be prepared. I didn't expect _him_ to interfere."

No. Neither had he. His eyes narrowed before he relaxed again.

"And you're sure Father-" Egyn cut himself off, the face of his costume turned to the floor.

Lucifer didn't shift from his position, lost in the sight of Gehenna sprawled out before him until it faded into the horizon over the peaks of the snow-capped mountains.

"We just have to wait, Egyn."

It would all end soon.

He didn't need to be king of time to know that future.

* * *

Notes: WOW it feels weird not to write a 60 page chapter lololol

We're getting into end game, baby ;) Hope this isn't too agonizing a chapter while I start up the next bundle of joy coming everyone's way~

Does it count as a New Year's gift if it's technically 2 am at posting time on January 2nd?


	8. Betwixt Light and Dark

**Summary:**

Is that dawn on the horizon? No, it's just a pillar of blue flames blowing straight through the stratosphere.

**Notes:**

We're in end game, baby. Hope everyone's ready~

Also wow, kinda crazy the first chapter of this monster was posted last year Feb 19 and it's almost as long as Incandescence at this point, like, it's going to overtake it by a long shot next chapter for the climax and then the epilogue, which should definitely be contained in one chapter- I said, lying to myself again (: (: (:

**Song(s) of the Chapter:**

Beautiful Crime by Tamer

All the King's Men by The Rigs

* * *

Existence _wasiswillbe_ agony.

It _knewknowswillknow_ this from the start.

And to know it was to _crave_ it.

Craving became its entire existence.

But there was another deeper ache that made itself known, something missing from its core. Like it missed half of itself, even if it was whole.

Like some other aspect of itself was out there in existence.

Whatever it was missing, it needed to find, knew it with a certainty filling everything and echoing into the ether.

First though, it needed something, a way to house its being, to funnel its concept into a definable form.

A vessel, a body.

That first breath that tore from a throat raw and bloody with screaming was the sweetest thing it had ever tasted.

The second breath never came. Its form couldn't last, couldn't fit into a host so small and ill-suited.

Violent death took its first brush with life.

Back to the agony of existence, of being without and knowing it the entire time. Its ego dispersed, lost, it forgot itself for a time that stretched further than the actual passing of it should rightfully be.

Hunger for more kept it from staying lost.

The second time was more successful.

Two breaths, a kaleidoscope of sensation washing its thoughts away until it was nothing more than one giant agonized state of being. It held on for as long as it could, the desire to exist welling up in a surge of energy that halted everything in a controlled stasis.

Pressure at the seams, it cried out, a terrible screech, desperate to stay, to avoid returning to that nothingness.

Its second brush with death came and sent it back.

No!

Not again. It wouldn't suffer that again.

This time, it felt the shape of things, poking and prodding and resisting the wildness inside that drove it to take until it had what it wanted.

Vessels shivered under its passing, the sense of wrongness as repelling as it was inviting. Even those two small deaths it had experienced were ecstasy.

When it took one, it stayed right up to the moment before death would be permanent, then, in a wrenching force of will, it left.

Several more possessions of that vessel, several more eternities before instincts let it know to open its eyes.

Physicality swept it under, every fiber of its being rang with overwhelming sensations it didn't have names for, couldn't separate one from the other. Something rushed in its senses, a thrumming beat, life pulsed around it, and, like an exposed nerve, it felt it all.

With it- pre-existing it, even- was knowledge. Infinite possibility flowed alongside the information from its vessel. The two tangled together to leave it stunned.

And, the vessel still wasn't perfect. Already it could feel the energy of its being as it ate away at the cells containing it and added bright, maddening pain to the environment it slowly adjusted in.

"Ah-h," its vessel released a cracking stutter that vibrated the meat making up sections of it, the names and words for everything escaping it under the confusing sensory whirl.

While the strangeness of being on the physical plane absorbed its thoughts, that absence that hadn't left yet drove it to move the vessel. Grit scratched to it, a feeling that almost sent it back down in a shuddering heap.

_Find it find it find it_

Desire so powerful it washed away the world had it falling, gasping more of those vibrations until it saw it was in a new place. The scents of that place hit it seconds later and it collapsed again.

Closer, it was closer.

The thing it was missing, it had to-

Reality twisted again, reforming in another location.

Still not where it had to be.

Once more. It had arrived at a new setting full of new scents, bombarded with sensations on its vessel it couldn't comprehend.

That call to his aspect had grown, like it was on the other side of a film of energy, so close it didn't know how it wasn't within grabbing distance of what it was missing.

Another ache had developed along with the ache of its aspect in a vessel. Something warm dripped, impeding its vision. A strange, addictive flavor knocked it down, bright and sharp in its mind and whiting its senses out until it was all it focused on.

Heady, filling it from the inside as it strained to get more of the liquid.

More sounds from its vessel, then. It gouged into it, letting that warmth fall and gathering it again, sounds muffled.

But…

Black spots began to fill its vision, its desperate motions tapered off when it couldn't force its vessel to move.

It faded, awareness vanished.

Waking later tore more sounds from it as it tried to separate its mind from the sensations inundating its vessel.

That urge to rend had left, only the urge to discover what was missing remained.

Just one more time-

That barrier broke, it reappeared, jerking towards the source of that thing tugging at its very essence and, when it saw it, lurching to fall into its arms.

Space, enveloping its aspect and cradling its vessel as it did the same.

Twin stars collapsed in on each other, close as they hadn't been since they'd formed in the ether at the dawn of time.

It knew then what it had been missing.

As one, they spoke, words coming to them from the minds of the vessels they'd taken.

"_We found you_."

Its other half.

* * *

Years passed, with them came knowledge. Of themselves and the physical world, of Assiah.

Of another aspect, like them, but not. Stronger.

And they learned of the beings that populated Assiah and housed their aspects.

Those beings, amongst all others, were _fascinating_.

They had no aspect, their lives were drops in a cosmic bucket, still they persisted. They created.

He _loved_ them.

Their lives played out in the timestream and prodding several of them in one way caused ripples in another.

To toy with them was something he would never tire of.

"We're bored." His other half didn't think the same.

How?

"We want to go to Gehenna."

What was there in Gehenna for them that Assiah couldn't provide? What worth, what entertainment could they find there in that stagnant place?

"We," his other half hesitated, biting his lip until he bled, "we're going to go, if we won't."

What? He snarled, confused and hating it. He tackled his other half, hissing in his face and digging claws deep into his shoulders to pin him down.

But, besides a wince of pain, his other half didn't react, staying limp beneath his body.

We can't! Why would we?

Soft fingers traced at his contorted features.

"We-" Space said, firm, unyielding, set in his path, "-_I_ am going to Gehenna."

When his other half rose, he couldn't stop him, kneeling in his lap with his knees pressed to the ground as if he could freeze him there with just his vessel.

"It won't be forever, we- you know this," Space said, hands drifting to his jaw to tilt it so he could nose into his throat, scenting him out with a deep inhale.

He did. He did know, could see it play out. It didn't make the cleave in his chest any lesser.

Space left him, standing to stare down at where he couldn't move before ducking his chin and speaking.

"I found my name," my, I, individuated from each other, "it's Abduxuel."

He didn't have his own name yet, hadn't seen the need to when they were one.

Now, with 'we' becoming 'I', he had in turn become nameless.

His other half- Abduxuel- smiled down at him, then with a snap, he was gone.

* * *

"I'm bored."

He arched a brow at Abduxuel, seeing his crossed arms over his suit where he stood at the end of the couch.

Why not try the new play at the theater the humans put on? Or the new restaurant he'd tried that Abduxuel would like? The humans had just invented a new drink he'd especially enjoy called absinthe, it matched the color of his eyes.

He already knew it wasn't what Abduxuel meant.

The wry smile quirked at him said Abduxuel knew it too.

"I want to go to Gehenna," there it was, that infernal place- literally.

Abduxuel surprised him by vanishing to appear draped over his now sprawled form on the couch, smile turned teasing as he picked at the ties of his loose shirt.

"Come with me, you didn't go with the last time."

There were many reasons for that, all of which made him want to grumble and huff like a human child, though it wouldn't change Abduxuel's mind.

"We can see -, and -, too, while we're there," Abduxuel said as he propped his chin on his fist, their noses just brushing together until he went cross-eyed trying to keep him in focus.

"They're almost as inseparable as us." The nuzzle Abduxuel drew over his cheek had him closing his eyes and sniffing. Unlikely. No beings were as inseparable as they.

A long ago whisper of 'we' had him hiding a tensing of his body. Abduxuel picked up on it anyway.

"Just a few years, we'll be back before the humans can even come out with their next technological breakthrough."

They would, though the fascinating string of events leading up to those breakthroughs would be annoying to miss.

But his current plans were moving along without his interference and everything else was just fun.

Fine, if it would make Abduxuel happy, he could suffer a few years in Gehenna.

"Wonderful," Abduxuel beamed at him in a flash of fangs, "thank you, love."

This time he couldn't stop the way his body froze.

What?

Confusion spun in Abduxuel's eyes and he realized he'd let out a soft growl. Shaking himself, he covered it with a laugh, short and sharp.

Was Abduxuel trying a new human mannerism?

"Oh," Abduxuel said, expression crinkling as he grinned and stood to let him up, "yes, the humans have such cute ways of speaking to each other."

And it was so much fun to mimic the humans.

It would be entertaining to sow a little chaos amongst the others, he decided. Gehenna was so boring without them livening the place up every century or so.

"The other day I heard one of them refer to another as their 'little bumblebee'," Abduxuel said, chuckling as he raised a hand to take them from Assiah, "I think I'll try that one on - next time we run into them- it's too bad they lost their last vessel."

The words carried them away.

Consciousness drifted close behind, the memory falling apart with it as sleep took him under.

He remembered...

* * *

The world held its breath on the sound of a shattered sword.

Amaimon tightened his fingers on the blade, a spasm that sliced deep into his palm before the flames covering it guttered out in a superheated hiss.

Flesh knitting back together was secondary to the thoughts racing in circles through his mind.

Then he released the blade from his grasp and dove towards Samael, pulling him into his arms and bolting from the immediate vicinity.

A giggle tried to break from his clenched teeth, the wild pulse singing in his veins spurring him on as he landed on a jutting ridge on one of the peaks overlooking the ravine.

It didn't matter anymore if he used his abilities within Lucifer's territory, there wouldn't be any hiding after this.

Not with Rin…

Deep clouds of steam hid Rin from sight but not from his senses. Rin's cries still reached him on his vantage point. Should he hide Samael away? Would it make a difference?

Either way, Samael would die. By Rin's hand, Father's hand, or by the curse. In the end, he would still be dead.

Silence, the cries cut off. Only the steam wafting in aimless eddies rose from the ravine.

He stilled, listening, straining for a sign that Rin lived.

His heart pounded behind his ribs so hard he thought they would crack to release the meaty pulp of his vessel to the air, exposed and raw.

Was Rin dead? Had the poison taken him? Had he been too late?

Rin's presence grew faint, nearly indistinguishable from Gehenna.

"Rin." His voice cracked on the unbidden word, throat dry, as Rin's name shivered out to get lost in the buffeting wind. A useless gesture. What good could it-

_Power_ welled up in a riptide, sucking the mists in the ravine into an inverted vortex until a sound like a thunder-strike shook the world and knocked him to his knees.

Fire followed soon after, filling the area and shooting straight into the stratosphere in a pillar of blue. Heat seared his skin despite the distance he'd fled to and his aspect pulsed in time with his heart, fighting to break free from the fragile confines and fling itself into the flames.

_Beautiful. _

Everything but the fire fell away, his body growing numb, all else meaningless in the face of that overwhelming power.

Amaimon might have made some sound, he didn't know, panting and mouth gaping on a silent scream, a laugh. This was Rin as he was _meant_ to be, without the shackles on his power, without the illusion of humanity blunting his claws and fangs, turning those blue flames into embers instead of the wildfire that had spawned all the beings of Gehenna.

And, more important than anything else, Rin was _alive_. Amaimon _hadn't_ killed him with his failure.

The blinding pillar dispersed, taking with it all the moisture in the vicinity, even the waters of the hot springs evaporated to leave Amaimon's vision clear of its haze.

Plumes of heat made it to caress his cheeks because those flames were still there.

In the center of the devastation, Rin stood, hair a shifting crown beneath blue-fire horns just above his brows and surrounded by an outpouring of his flames.

He couldn't see his eyes, Rin's face tilted to look at his hands, turning them over like he'd just discovered they existed.

At his feet, the tail that had once been an inky black was now bleached of color to match Rin's hair, a brilliant white stained blue by the flames. It slithered in slow, absent movements, the coils hypnotic.

And at his chest, floating there in absolute proof that Rin lived, was his demonic heart.

Watching it, the way it shone with the core of Rin's power, could have taken Amaimon centuries to be satisfied with. This was something he would never tire of.

Being so utterly enraptured by the sight meant it was too late that Amaimon noticed Rin's attention had shifted.

Irises of blue flame shot through with vivid, red slit-pupils gleamed up at him, highlighted by a wicked smile that bared fangs elongated to bristling wedges.

His heart stopped. That wasn't Rin behind those eyes, wearing that dangerous smile.

Between one breath and the next, Rin vanished.

Alarm sent him gripping Samael to his chest and ducking low to bolt.

Claws slid over the pounding artery in his neck, blue encroached on his vision, Rin was already there.

_Too late!_

"Amaimon," the syllables of his name purred out from Rin's lips in a way he would have been delighted to hear any of the other times he'd wanted to play.

"You said I might die if I used the sword," a scraping touch of Rin's clawed thumb swept along his throat, tracking the cold sweat that he'd broken into, "I feel _great_, like I want to let out all my flames."

As if to add to his point, the flames he released licked harder along Amaimon's shuddering frame, tugging at his hair and clothes and utterly encompassing. At any moment those flames could turn from comforting pressure to burning tomb. A pyre.

All on Rin's whim.

Fingers gripped white-knuckled into the fabric of Samael's clothes.

"Will you let me, Amaimon? It'll be fun." A whimper tried to force itself from his lips, held back by will and the knowledge of what would happen to him if he gave into the instincts screaming for him to run, to flee. He wanted to give in so badly, but he _couldn't_ be prey.

Not if he wanted Samael to survive, if he wanted to keep his own vessel.

"Come on, I want to play," Rin crooned into his ear, his fingers a cage around Amaimon and his fangs grazing in a tantalizing slide to his skin. It was a cruel facade. An illusion. If he gave in, he would be torn apart, might still be destroyed if the fickle being at his back changed its mind.

"That's what you've wanted this whole time, right, Amaimon?" The sudden growl in Rin's tone sent his heart rate skittering in his chest. His grip tightened until Amaimon choked.

"Don't _ignore_ _me_, Amaimon."

The danger broke on that last hiss of his name, turning to red violence.

He gagged around a constricted airway, impeded by the way Rin dug lethal claws into his windpipe and sent hot blood to suffocate him from inside.

Then Rin lifted his arm, taking Amaimon with it as he kicked his legs in the air, fighting for purchase when he knew he wouldn't find any but unwilling to take his arms from the hold he had on Samael.

"Say something," Rin snapped, shaking Amaimon as the tears in his jugular deepened, "why won't you play with me?"

Rin didn't wait for a reply, flinging him to the ground with only enough time for him to turn so it was his side bearing the brunt of the fall and not Samael.

Craggy rocks making up the cliffside stabbed into his body, the ones not battering deep internal bruises where they struck gouged furrows that stained the earth red when he finally came to a stop. But not for long, the flames still cocooned him, baking the surroundings until only the stone remained.

And Rin advanced.

Blood flecked his lips when he coughed to get it from his lungs. It burned there, turning to ash as Rin's flames balanced on the edge of true damage.

How could he stop Rin? He was just one of eight aspects that made up the power Rin wielded. Amaimon stared up into the cruel being bearing down on him in steady steps and knew his time dwindled each one closer.

Samael was limp in his arms, Rin hadn't even paid him any attention. Not when there was moving prey to keep his focus.

The flames pressed harder, like existence itself held him down, kept him from fleeing.

To attack was futile. Rin was upon him.

White blurred and Amaimon scrabbled at his throat where the coils of Rin's tail wound in a constricting noose.

He scored hits with his claws that Rin howled in pain at before the flames wreathing his tail flared and then it was Amaimon screaming.

Agony stole his mind from him along with his breath, eaten by the fire Rin enveloped his head with as it poured down his throat.

That all-consuming attack petered out, though it took him eternities to realize it, vision gone dark because the flames had melted his eyes in his skull.

Amaimon released a thin groan, Rin having loosened his tail enough that some air made it to his starving lungs. He couldn't tell if it was the lack of oxygen or healing from the searing fires that made every breath torturous.

"Why?" His hearing had returned, letting him take in the bitterness seeping from Rin's words, "you won't play with me. Why?"

Another attack like that, or if Rin had kept it up for any longer, and he would lose his vessel.

If he couldn't stop Rin now during the brief respite, it would all be over.

He wouldn't fail again.

Squinting up through healing eyes allowed Amaimon to see the frustrated expression on Rin's face, the smile that had been there changed to fangs bared in betrayal, as if Amaimon's refusal to play were hurting _him_ in some way.

Samael had fallen from his arms, lying in a heap on the ground at their feet.

"Rin," Amaimon said, voice rasping from his abused throat and earning him a growl, a dangerous tightening of the noose. He continued despite it, hands coming up to lay over Rin's tail, feeling the short furs there through the fire licking at his fingers in a casual threat.

Meeting that furious gaze, Amaimon knew what he would say, "will you leave him there, Rin?"

"What?" Rin said, brows drawing together as he pulled away from Amaimon, "who cares-"

"Have you given up on your human displays?" Amaimon interrupted, not letting Rin hide from himself and meeting his stunned gaze with a glare.

A sharp inhale, as if he'd punched him in the gut, sent Rin reeling back, though he didn't let Amaimon free.

It was Rin's turn to look lost, making up for all the times he'd done the same to Amaimon. The blue flames of his irises flickered as if searching for something.

"If-" Amaimon gasped as Rin's tail flexed in a spasm, bruising his skin with the force of it and sending his mouth gaping to bring in air that wouldn't come. It loosened in the next moment and he forced the last thing he could think of to bring Rin back to himself out around retching coughs as his body healed the damage again, "-if Samael dies here, that's it. You wanted to save him, Rin. You-"

Another harsh gag he pushed through, black spots in his eyes. Amaimon ignored them both.

"-You told me that's why you're here," why he'd faced down both Assiah and Gehenna with Amaimon as his only ally, "remember, Rin?"

Blue eyes widened, Amaimon wondered if his gambit had paid off. He had no other options left, preparing to attack if he failed and knowing he would lose his vessel and Samael, his life, when he did. He would try anyway.

Rin gasped, jolting him from his thoughts. Amaimon watched as he stared, sightless and gaze turned inwards as if waging some internal battle. He didn't know who the victor would be.

Awareness returned like a thrown switch. Rin focused back on Amaimon with horror twisting his features, head turning down to see where Samael lay before returning to Amaimon again as he tried to speak.

"Amaimon, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I-" his eyelids shuttered over his pupils and Rin sank to his knees, his tail falling from Amaimon's neck as he went limp in sudden unconsciousness.

Amaimon dropped with him, heart thundering as the danger passed. He knew it wasn't the end, that a worse storm came for them and there would be no talking this one down.

They couldn't rest. There was no _time_.

He snapped and tore Rin from his sleep, putting his heart away at the same time and hearing a heaving exhale leave his lips as he gathered Samael in his arms again and rose.

"Wha-" Rin began to say, curling in on himself like a wounded animal as confusion left him panicked.

"We have to go, Rin," Amaimon snapped again to clothe him and bring him to his feet.

Taking in that wide, trusting gaze, Amaimon felt something harden in his chest. A determination.

"Father is coming."

On the horizon, hidden by the peaks, he could feel the horde descending on them.

And with them, Father's presence burned in his senses.

* * *

Dread filled every fiber of Rin's being, shredding the confusion and panic after what he'd done to Amaimon into a horrible confetti whirlwind in his mind.

But Amaimon didn't wait any longer, shoving him forward as he leapt for the next peak. Rin scrambled to follow, some detached part of him noting how much easier moving was, how weightless his body felt, as he pushed it harder than he'd done yet.

He'd hurt Amaimon, nearly incinerated him to ashes, would have killed him, if things had gone on any longer. He could still smell the burning hair and cooking flesh. All he'd felt then had been a fury that Amaimon wouldn't play with him, was _ignoring_ him.

Disgust rose in his throat, stinging with acid bile.

_Why had he done that? _

Energy still flooded his veins with more power than he knew what to do with, a writhing thing that begged him to go faster, use more, unleash it all and keep going until he'd been drained dry.

He didn't think that well of power could ever be drained completely.

That wasn't the only part of his body that had changed, either.

Rin stared at the sky that had been dark and cloudy the entire time he'd been in Gehenna. If he didn't have fear drilling holes into his core he would have stopped and been unable to move again for a long time.

Where before purple miasma had shrouded everything, now he saw streams of energy swirling within the haze that lit the world up like it was a cloudless, midday morning in Assiah. The mountains they fled over had been illuminated until they almost blinded him to look at.

Was this how Gehenna looked to other demons?

A sharp crack sent his pulse into a wild beat. That had been from behind them, from the horde he could sense through the peaks that blocked their view.

With that horde, drawing closer despite the speed they fled at, was a presence he'd felt just once at the start of it all.

Another earth-shattering crack, like parts of the mountain were being sheared off, made Rin chance a look.

Blue flame broke the mists, shooting up into the sky in sporadic bursts.

To his side, Amaimon ran with grim determination, any signs of fear that he might have felt were covered, expression cold and utterly focused on their escape. Rin's heart dropped into his stomach, hating that his stupid inattention had led to all of their efforts crashing down around them.

"How close are we?" Rin shouted, "can we make it?"

Amaimon glanced at him from the corner of his eye, lips tugging into a hard press before he answered, "not close enough."

The lead weight in his gut hardened further, Rin swallowing but forcing himself to keep running, desperately hoping Amaimon had a plan.

If they didn't make it to Lucifer, what then?

His thoughts screeched to a halt, a wash of cold realization striking and making his limbs go numb.

They were headed to _Lucifer_. Lucifer, who wanted to turn him over to Satan. His breaths came in thin rasps from his mouth, every second feeling more and more like he was prey being chased into a dead end, boxed in at every exit.

There was no way Amaimon didn't know that, but what did that mean? Did Amaimon have a plan at all? The lack of telling signs from him left Rin without an answer.

Sharp whistling in the air, piercing his ears and making him flinch.

Something stabbed through Amaimon's chest from behind, just missing Mephisto and breaking through to the other side followed by an arc of vivid red.

"_Gah-ack_!" Amaimon choked on a cry, caught in the air midway through a leap and tumbling from the sky.

"Amaimon!" Rin shouted, reaching too late and watching Amaimon land on an ice shelf clutching the side of the mountain. He rolled, red staining the snow and somehow not losing hold of Mephisto.

Rin jerked to a sliding halt where he'd ended up ahead, body protesting the force as he tore back around to the form rising from the ground.

Another body cleared the nearest peak, dropping towards Amaimon just as Rin made it to his side and snarled at the first of the horde to arrive.

Wide bulbous eyes on the insect-looking demon snapped to him and a chittering cry went up.

Then that cry turned into a broken rasp and its body arched in writhing contortions. A viscous liquid gurgled up from its mandibles while Rin crouched in front of Amaimon with his fangs and claws bared even as his mind scrabbled to understand what was happening.

In the distance, he could hear the horde, could feel them growing closer.

He didn't have any more time to consider it as the insect stopped its movements and set its gaze on Rin. The mouth gaped in what could have passed for a grin.

It spoke.

"Found you, my son!"

The demon died in a blaze of blue flames.

Blue flames that hadn't come from Rin.

As the body fell, claws clamped around Rin's upper arm and he pulled away with a startled gasp, turning from the smoldering body in the snow to see Amaimon had recovered and urged him into a run again.

Thoughts flew in spiraling knots, tripping him up and sending his mind crashing into so much white noise. He ran without processing a thing and his nerves buzzed in frantic pulses that swept him under.

One clawed its way up above the rest, blaring with alarm until it was the only thing he was aware of.

After all this time, he'd come face to face with Satan.

What now?

Terrible screeching cries rang out, splitting the wind to burrow into his ears. They were victory cries. The horde had made it, were now dogging at their heels.

Any moment and they would be surrounded.

Rin grit his teeth, swallowing the fear and panic making his head hurt. Behind him, he could feel the fastest demons gaining on them, not slowed down by having to run when they could fly over the obstacles in their way.

They could still keep ahead of the ones on the ground. Even now, with his lungs taking in heaving gasps of the thin mountain air, he felt the power inside him that made the other demons seem like annoying gnats swarming in his face instead of the threat they had been before. If Satan hadn't been amongst them he would have delighted in getting to unleash his flames, to make them surge in an endless blue wave over the mountains until nothing but he, Amaimon, and Mephisto remained at the center.

It was the burst of blue flames that didn't belong to him, the mad, cackling laughter joining it, that drove danger deep into his bones and kept him from turning to face the horde. His gaze caught on Amaimon, saw the blood that still stained his clothes even if the damage had already healed.

On his own, Rin would have gladly turned around and either paid back Satan for taking so much from him, for taking Shiro and leaving Yukio to grow more distant every day since, or die trying.

But, he wasn't alone.

Mephisto's sleeping face where he hung limp in Amaimon's arms had Rin narrowing his eyes and forcing himself to ignore the enemies at his back. Amaimon had already risked so much to help him, something he hadn't realized in the beginning, and Mephisto depended on him to find a cure for his curse.

He wouldn't let petty revenge come between that.

So, when the next flyer to reach them entered his range, Rin snarled and flung his hand out, blue flame roaring in a long plume to turn it to ash when it couldn't escape in time as bitter victory curled in his chest.

If Amaimon thought they should keep running, then he would trust him and not make everything for nothing.

Sudden, wry humor had him laughing, bringing Amaimon to dart a startled expression towards him that had a half-hysterical grin stretching on Rin's lips as he explained.

"Just thinking," he shouted over the wind to Amaimon's bafflement, "Yukio and my old man would be so proud of me for following orders so well this whole time. That's never happened before!"

Fangs bared as Amaimon cracked a wide grin of his own, gold eyes gleaming at the smile they shared, wild with the adrenaline shooting in their veins and the almost certain death at their heels.

Ahead of them, a break in the mountains revealed a wide, snow-covered valley between the peaks and Rin knew their time for running had ended.

They touched down in the center, waiting for the horde. With what looked like a brief internal debate, Amaimon handed Mephisto to him, making a series of rapid-fire emotions flash through Rin, though he didn't argue, taking Mephisto and gripping tight.

"Rin," he glanced over at the call of his name, then stopped to see the steady look in Amaimon's eyes, earlier humor vanished, "you've done well."

Oh. Rin blinked in a flutter of lashes at the solemn praise from Amaimon, chest squeezing as he nodded with a soft thanks because he couldn't think of what else he could say. Except...

"Amaimon?" Rin said as the horde crested the peak, "I'm glad you're with me. I'm glad you chose to help."

An equally as soft sound of acknowledgement came from Amaimon.

Then, with a full-bodied shudder, Amaimon dropped his human facade, limbs stretching into their reptilian form and those green-scaled horns appearing on his head. He shook his clawed hands out in preparation while his tail lashed at his feet.

"Oh, one more thing, Rin," Amaimon said, fangs elongated and pupils slivered with the building bloodlust Rin could feel bubbling in his own body.

Amaimon grinned and it looked vicious.

"Use your flames."

He vanished, form a blur to meet the demons coming for them with a roar that shook the snow from the mountainsides, the white powder rising in rumbling flurries to fill the valley and wiping them from Rin's view.

Use his flames.

His heart skipped in a single, solid thud.

Beneath his skin, power welled up to bursting. After so long, he gave into the urge, releasing to send fire licking up his body before sinking back to embers.

Rin smiled, then he unleashed.

Like a bomb going off, like a sun bursting into existence, his fire billowed in a rapidly expanding circle, fed by the endless power of his core. It dove over the distance and met the flurries to hiss into steam seconds later.

In his arms, Mephisto stayed cocooned in the flames, ragged bangs tossed by the heated air but undamaged.

When even the steam evaporated under the torrent of his flames, Rin saw Amaimon tearing through the demons coming for him, luring the ones dumb enough or slow enough not to dodge straight into the fire where they burned up to ash.

Savage joy sent Rin from his spot to enter the fray. There was no good reason for him to be standing around when his flames worked at any angle he threw them at. The muscles in his legs bunched as he launched himself with his own roar to land in the middle of a group of demons his attack dispersed a moment later, death cries lost to all the others taking up throughout their new battlefield.

This was right, his mind sang under the surface. This was how it was meant to be- _who_ he was meant to be.

There were no limits, couldn't be, if they wanted to survive this.

Fire poured from his body, expanding into a wider circle as demons tried to attack from every angle, filling the valley. Outside his sphere, Amaimon flung stone around like a toy, letting it take shape as fatal daggers or gaping crevasses that ate swathes of enemies whole, slamming shut to trap them in the bowels of their earthen tomb.

The cacophony of their fight, of the shattered earth, animalistic screams, flame, eating everything Rin didn't want to protect, made it hard to concentrate past the combat.

Something interrupted the din, a presence.

Satan dropped from the sky and parted his flames like a wave, the body he possessed ripping apart at the force it was under, trying to contain the entirety of Gehenna.

Rin gasped and stumbled back, raising a clawed hand in defense of where he held Mephisto as he prepared for impact.

His claws went through the body, a sick squelch of rent flesh as blood slicked his skin soon after.

A grinning face met him, Satan bringing his hands up to grip Rin's shaking forearm as he spoke around the death rattles of his current host, "so wonderful to see you, my son!"

Those flame-warped eyes that mirrored his flicked to Mephisto before the grin warped further, "and you've even brought your errant sibling home."

"A lost lamb..." he faded, voice echoing in Rin's ears, "...returned to the flock…"

The demon, now dead on his arm, burst into flames and sparks that leapt in Rin's stunned gaze. His hand twitched as if still held in Satan's clutches.

What was he-

Breaths shivered from his mouth, lost in the din, but the only thing Rin could hear was his pounding pulse, drowning everything out.

What game was Satan playing at? What did he want?

Around him, Amaimon lay waste to the horde, darting into and out of Rin's flames without any signs that he was afraid of them, afraid of Rin burning him again.

Like he trusted Rin with more than Mephisto's life. Like Amaimon trusted Rin with his, too.

Fine, Rin snarled, shedding the nerves that weakened his mind and sending a torrent of fire at the demons in the sky overhead.

Fine. It didn't matter that Satan was trying to play mind games with him, he wouldn't fail.

Amidst the most recent group of demons Rin had turned to ash, one stayed standing, its head snapping up to grin before leaping back towards him, already trailing blood in the air.

Bracing himself for contact, Rin shifted to guard Mephisto from any lucky strikes Satan might try to pull, wishing he had his sword still to give him breathing space. That hysterical feeling was back in his chest at the thought of getting breathing space away from _Satan_.

Bloodstained fangs bared around Satan's words when he called out over the destruction.

"And you've been bonding!" Satan said and lashed out as if to grab at the fabric of Rin's collar, like he would pull him closer into a parody of an affectionate touch, "it's so great to see siblings getting along."

"Bastard," Rin hissed, flame coming from his mouth as he spat the word and gutted Satan, raking his claws through flesh that gave way too easily, already rotted inside.

Satan laughed, head hanging limp from the host body as if he couldn't raise it anymore, as if the tendons had decayed like the rest.

"It's too bad-" Rin stopped his words with a hand around his throat, crushing it and letting it fall apart. It wouldn't do any good. Satan had already left the body. He didn't care. He'd burn every one of the demons coming for them until Satan didn't have a body to possess.

A sea of demons still poured in to fill the basin from all sides, raining down as they tried to break through his flames. Rin couldn't stay still, even protected from close combat by the barrier he'd formed, because they could still launch weapons or the environment that held up to the fire better than their bodies did.

Rin avoided a boulder the size of a car flung at his head, responding with his own fire-spout and letting a growl form when the demon darted out of range.

Vibrations in the ground made it hard to keep steady, rocking with each upheaval beneath him and fighting to stay standing.

He noticed too late the earth rumbling under his feet wasn't aftershocks from Amaimon's attacks. Ground crumbled away and claws dug into his calf muscle, tearing a cry from his mouth as he jerked to look at the source.

Satan grinned up at him from his newest skin, pulling himself from the earth and leaving strips of flesh behind. Rin fought to free himself one-handed, bombarded from the sky while Satan returned to his taunting.

"You didn't let me finish, son," Satan said, sneer on his face that said he knew Rin would rather tear off his ears than listen to him, "I was only saying how sad it was that this is all for _nothing_."

Red flooded Rin's vision. He didn't know if Satan was talking about Mephisto or the current battle. He didn't care.

"Fuck you," Rin hissed, then grabbed the grinning skull looking up at him and crushed it, breaking free from the decayed body and jumping to the next group, letting them ignite into cinders when they didn't get out of the way in time.

What was his goal? This whole time, Satan had wanted him brought to Gehenna, but he'd never known the reason, never really wanted to know it. Now that he'd discovered Rin actually in Gehenna, all he wanted to do was mock him? Did he even have a real purpose?

Shards of stone sliced across his face and Rin grunted at the assault, squinting his eyes and leaping at the demon who'd been the source. It and the others nearby died in shrieks lost to the all-consuming flames.

The waves of demons that had seemed so endless, so terrifyingly vast when he'd first seen them over the expanse of Iblis' kingdom now showed signs of lessening. He just had to keep going, keep the outpouring of his fire, until they were all gone and Satan couldn't use them anymore.

Without Satan in his immediate vicinity, victory hummed in his veins. When the urge hit him, Rin loosed another roar, feeling the instincts pulsing along with his power.

Amaimon took up the call from where he collapsed the side of the mountain closest to him and swallowed the screams of the demons under miles of stone and earth. This, _this_, was what Rin had held Amaimon back from in Iblis' territory because he'd been sealed and too weak to fight like he could now without that barrier.

His hair tossed around his head, whipping lines in his face that he barely felt with the flames buffeting him as he brought that power down on the half not fought by Amaimon.

Free. He felt _free_. Comfortable in his skin in a way he'd never been his entire life.

Laughter broke from his lips, visceral and harsh with the fangs he bared across the plane to the enemies challenging him, though whether they could hear him or not was up for debate.

An unhinged wildness accompanied him on his violent warpath, something that made him feel half-feral with the unending power flooding through his veins. Like he might get swept under if he stayed too long.

A flash of thought made it over the battle-song filling his head that was reminiscent of who he'd been at the start of it all. That Rin who had hesitated to punch through an obsidian pillar, had been afraid of his own power and heritage. _That_ Rin saw the legions of demons falling to his flames and wondered if they all wanted to be there, fighting him, if they'd been forced into the conflict, if he was killing demons like Kuro.

There'd been cait sidhe amongst the horde, each one that he destroyed looked like his familiar.

The form that brought destruction down on them, a green blur that resolved itself as Amaimon when he came to a stop in the center of a now barren indent pressed into the ground, pushed aside whatever bit of the hesitant Rin that remained. Amaimon had told him he couldn't hesitate, couldn't show mercy, because Gehenna wouldn't show it to him, not if they wanted to survive.

He felt the faint heartbeat under his fingers where he clutched Mephisto to his chest, dodging in zig-zagging lines over the battlefield to leave his own destruction in his wake. His flames and the chaos taking all his focus meant he couldn't hear or feel the breaths that never got any stronger than a soft puff of air from between Mephisto's lips.

And his own snarls and cries as he fought almost drowned out that, without his flames chasing the chill away, Mephisto grew colder by the day. Rin could smell the decay eating at Mephisto's body, now. He could sense the curse, no longer a vague feeling that something was horribly wrong with Mephisto, but as a sickening parasite, latched onto his core and draining it exponentially.

It made Rin harden his expression into a dark glare at the demons in his way, the ones preventing him from getting to Lucifer and finding a cure for the damn curse killing Mephisto.

All because Satan wouldn't- _couldn't-_ leave him the hell alone!

Rin sent his flames up the side of the nearest mountain, scorching a path through the demons along it as they tried to race towards him with a bitter satisfaction in his gut as they extinguished in his fire.

One survived. Satan had come back, was running full tilt down at him with that warped smile on his face that Rin was beginning to hate.

This time, he met him head on, sinking his claws deep into the arms attempting to reach him in a mocking embrace, Satan still maintaining the illusion that they were a family reunited, like it was some kind of game he was playing.

Snarling in his face didn't stop Satan, didn't stop the flames that felt so much like his own from mixing and stroking through the ones he wielded like an unwanted touch.

"He doesn't look so good," Satan said in a croon, bloodshot eyes pinned to Mephisto before he flicked a smirk up at Rin when he heard the grit fangs his comment brought out. "He was always a weirdo, though. I'd say his looks have improved!"

Satan was too close, then, fangs bared in Rin's face and flecks of his blood spraying when he spoke, "Wouldn't you, son?"

Rin released his claws from the deep holes he'd punched through Satan's failing vessel to wrap his hand around his mouth. A tongue swiped in a mocking slide against his palm that he ignored.

"No, I wouldn't." He squeezed and destroyed that vessel too, gaze cold despite the heat and cinders singeing bright pain to his cheeks from the corpse.

He brought his hand to Mephisto's back, gripping into the fabric of his cape as he realized his body shivered, something he only felt because Mephisto was so still except for that soft heartbeat.

When he finally turned his gaze to survey the battlefield, he noticed all but a handful had been killed. They faced off with Amaimon and Rin could sense the power in the remaining demons. They were strong, creatures that looked like they'd come right out of some mythological legend. He recognized a few as the ones that had been able to flee his attacks, staying back while their slower companions died in the fire.

Amaimon could take them, but Rin wouldn't leave him to do it alone.

As he leapt from the mountainside, he could see one of the demons writhing in blue flame, the others giving it a wide berth as it fell to Satan's possession. Rin landed with a juddering impact, rising from his crouch just as Satan did the same.

Blue-fire irises met as Rin stalked through the remainders of Satan's army. They parted in silence, watching him as he returned to Amaimon's side.

A flash of gold eyes met his when he came to a stop by Amaimon. The lizard-like features of his body had faded away, leaving him bare-footed and without the green gloves that his transformation had torn.

Grit and splashes of blood made an abstract painting on the frayed clothes draping Amaimon. More blood had begun to trickle from his eyes and nose, making the bruises under his eyes almost as deep as the ones on Mephisto. The sight struck a chord of anxiety through Rin, but the look in Amaimon's eyes, the hard flint of his expression, soothed the taut wire of Rin's nerves.

Then, as one, they turned to face Satan.

Staring up at the creatures that were probably older than Rin could comprehend would have scared him once. To see the warping grin on the demon at the forefront and know it was Satan behind that malevolent smile would have frozen him to his core. Amaimon's presence burned at his side through the flickers of his flames that he'd allowed to envelop the three of them in a protective wreath.

"Here we are," Satan said, red trailing from his lips and limbs failing to leave him standing in disjointed angles, "and isn't this much better? So much more intimate."

"What do you want?" Rin said, voice coming out frostbitten. He doubted any answer Satan gave would make sense, or that it would make him care what he actually wanted.

The vessel burnt up, Satan had already fled it, leaving it to take the next. Around him, the demons seemed more like living statues, pillars that could have been carved into shape and didn't make any sign that they cared when another in their group shook with the beginnings of Satan's possession

Rin would have been horrified if he hadn't just sent so many of the fanatically persistent demons from existence. He didn't have the luxury of horror, not anymore.

Satan moved to the front of the row, trailing drops of his blood on the ground behind him as he continued where he'd left off.

"I want what I have from the start," he said through a mouthful of jagged teeth that he trailed a long tongue over to catch the blood that trickled from there, too, "you, my dear son."

Fingers clenched in Mephisto's clothes with the spike of Rin's ire, a dangerous narrowing of his gaze he directed towards Satan.

"Too bad," Rin said in a deep growl, leaving no room for interpretation, "it's not happening."

Another body dropped, Rin let a long, heated wash of breath seep from his lips. His body shivered sporadically with adrenaline, held on edge now that he was standing still after so much constant fighting.

This time, Satan slithered forward in the form of a great dragon without legs, maw gaping around what passed for a smile and eyes burning with blue flame. Scales dropped to the scorched earth in heavy thuds when he leaned down at Rin.

"What's the matter?" rasped the words from a forked tongue, "Too busy to spend time with your daddy? I'm hurt!"

"Yeah, I am," Rin hissed back, heart beating hard to his ribs at the mocking and wanting to get this whole farce over with. But something held him back from just loosing his flames on the remaining demons. Half because something about the set-up, the way the demons stood as if on some kind of ceremony, the way Amaimon let him speak without any interference, leant weight and gravity to the proceedings.

The other half, that buried half of Rin, just wanted to know why.

Why had Shiro died? Why did Satan want him?

Fire left the dragon's body in smoldering ashes at his feet and Satan appeared in his next vessel.

"I understand," Satan said in a voice that poured saccharine sweet from the multiple fanged mouths of his newest body, "you're having fun playing with your siblings."

That burning gaze drifted in a lazy roll to Amaimon and Rin felt him stiffen at his side, moving on automatic to shift more in front of him like he could divert Satan's attention that way.

"You sure picked a boring one to play with." Dismissal, as if Amaimon were utterly unimportant to Satan. "Which child were you again?"

"Oh wait, I remember," Satan said, dropping a fist almost rotted through onto his palm like he'd had an epiphany, "you're the dirt king!"

What? Rin's eyes widened, breath cutting off in his chest as he tried to understand the words he'd just heard uttered from Satan's smirking mouth.

_That son of a-_

"Rin," Amaimon said, low, and when Rin snapped his head to the side to look at him, shivering with barely restrained rage, he saw placid calm staring back.

Warmth from the pads of Amaimon's fingers followed by the sensation of claws tracing to the inside of his wrist broke him of the black fury eating at him like the venom from the snakebite had earlier. It stunned him just as badly.

It had been to the arm hidden by Mephisto's legs and the rumpled cloak where Rin held him so none of the demons or Satan had seen the calming movement from Amaimon. Because that's what it had been. A movement so human Rin wouldn't have thought in a million years that Amaimon would understand it enough to use it, not when his last method of calming Rin's rage had been teeth to his throat and claws at his gut.

A flash of memory brought him back to Amaimon sending him a thumbs-up after he'd performed a move right, something Rin had been amused by when he'd seen it. It looked like Amaimon had picked up more than one unexpected human habit.

But it worked. Rin felt his rage harden, becoming sharp like a spined defense pointed outwards at Satan for thinking he could say anything with real meaning or value. Nothing he said would ever matter to Rin. Nothing.

The last body had fallen and the last remaining been possessed, Satan peered down at him from the diamond eyes of a stone titan, towering above the rest, now long burnt to charcoaled husks of the monstrous creatures they'd been.

"It doesn't matter which you play with," Satan said, his pitch like rocks breaking against each other to grate at Rin's ears to the point of pain, "once the weirdo dies, you'll have nowhere left to run and then you'll be coming home to _me_."

Stones fell off the vessel's body in a steady rain, the dust and shards blowing away like a time-lapse of a mountain worn down by the elements.

"Yeah," Rin said, steel beneath his words and unfaltering, "I will be coming back. And I'll be coming for you. You can count on it."

He would come for Satan. Then he would kill him. Then he would go _home._

"Wonderful!" Satan jeered, body almost fully disintegrated. Still, he clung to it, determined to have the final word. "Then I'll just be waiting for a few more days and we'll have our family reunion."

"It's inevitable, you know-" Satan cut off, exiting the body. Without him forcing it together, the rock blasted into sand that stung at Rin's face before his flames cleared it away and they were finally alone.

Moments passed as Rin tried to tell his instincts that it was over and they could relax. The hairs raised on his skin wouldn't pick up the memo. He let his flames dissipate in a soft hiss, hoping that would settle his nerves. Without the constant fire, only the wind sounded in his ears and his pulse pounding right along with it.

"Amaimon are we-" Rin turned to face him, unsure about their next move.

Sudden gagging and Amaimon hunching over had Rin jerking forward, gasping when Amaimon began to bleed again as if his body were under attack.

"Amaimon what-?"

Amaimon snarled around a mouthful of blood.

"You can't have me, Father."

Cold gutted him, allowing fear inside soon after as Rin recognized what Amaimon bleeding meant.

Satan was trying to possess him next, more persistently than Rin had ever seen, as Amaimon dug claws into his arms as if to ground himself in his own body.

What could he do? Rin reached out for Amaimon, finding his hand wreathed in flames like his subconscious tried to protect itself from the threat he just now realized had never left. His hand hovered over Amaimon's shoulder, the edges of his flames licking at the torn fabric to the skin beneath.

A full-body quake sent Amaimon trembling like he would fall any second, his eyes that had been shot wide open now shuttered over glazed pupils and his breath came too fast, too shallow.

One of the ripples of unsteadiness had Amaimon swaying the rest of the way towards Rin. The moment Rin's hand came into contact with him a hiss escaped his mouth and he arched his spine like he'd been lightning-struck.

Rin's hesitation left him, hand gripping tight and lowering Amaimon to the ground while his mind raced, trying to understand what was happening as Amaimon groaned. His body lay taut and Rin was forced to set Mephisto aside as he rolled Amaimon against his knees and searched for a sign that he was aware at all.

"Come on, Amaimon, don't let him win. You're stronger than this," Rin whispered frantically, more to himself because he didn't know if Amaimon could even hear him from the war he fought in his own head.

He brushed his hands over Amaimon, feeling the trembling that hadn't let up and the ragged choking that told of liquid in his lungs. It was just like before, after they'd fled from Iblis and Amaimon had pushed his vessel too far, except this wasn't something he could heal from to shake it off.

Sweat plastered his hair to his forehead, his skin pallid beneath the bright flush and blood staining it red. Rin pressed his palm there, then froze.

His mind left the battlefield, taken by the physical sensation moving along the energy flowing through his body to his flames and meeting Amaimon's core where it struggled to stay afloat.

That overwhelming presence that made up Satan concentrated on drowning Amaimon's aspect under a torrent of blue flame. Rin wouldn't let him, letting his instincts guide his own flames.

Blue flared over him, flowing down to envelope Amaimon as Rin growled where he'd bowed over him, the command coming out around bared fangs straight into his ear, "Amaimon. _Fight_."

Satan flared his flames against Rin's, a tide with a sinking undercurrent that tore at his fire like it would consume him too.

"No, you can't have me, either," Rin said in a hiss that crackled with his fire.

Amaimon heaved a whooshing breath, eyes flying open again and pupils blown. His claws came to grip at Rin's shirt and he stilled, contorted in Rin's lap where he held him until, with a last, bone-deep shudder, Satan left his body.

Slumping back down, Amaimon panted, sightless and shaking but free from any energy that wasn't his own or Rin's.

But Rin didn't need the claws moving to grab his wrist and the wild look that came with the returning awareness in Amaimon's eyes to know the danger wasn't over yet.

Where would he strike next? Rin still hunched over Amaimon, gaze turned to the environment as if he could see Satan that way. It was impossible, with Satan comprising the entirety of Gehenna, to pick him out amongst the energy in the air.

Fire flared behind him and Rin scrabbled to turn around, heart dropping like a lead weight. He knew where Satan had struck.

Mephisto lay, body covered by Satan's flames and blood coming from his nose, from his closed eyes and parted lips. His body didn't move, didn't shudder like Amaimon's had.

"He's gonna drown," Rin said in a hushed realization, letting Amaimon get his hands under him and crawling to Mephisto.

"Amaimon!" Rin shouted, voice raw in his chest with his panic and desperation. "He's gonna drown! How do we get the blood out? What do we _do?_"

Amaimon arrived at his side in the next second, snapped out of his recovery by the urgency.

"I'll get his lungs clear." Despite the hurried movements, Amaimon's voice stayed steady, helping Rin climb down from the ledge he'd teetered on.

Rin nodded, lips pressed in a harsh line.

"And," Amaimon said as he stared up at Rin from beneath his stained bangs, "you have to use your flames like you did for me."

Did for him? Rin tried to remember the instincts he'd followed earlier, chest squeezed tight by the sight of Amaimon growing and then stabbing a thin, hollow plant of some sort straight into Mephisto as blood poured from the other end out of his lungs.

Right. He couldn't sit around, Mephisto would die.

Flames once more spilling from him, Rin brushed the bangs from Mephisto's cold forehead and closed his eyes, searching for the parasite that was Satan hidden beneath the curse. The foreign flames fought him, he could feel them like a living creature where they writhed.

And, beneath it all, deeper than Rin had gone with Amaimon, until the outside world faded, Rin found a spark.

Muffled silence filled his ears. His heartbeat slowed, calmed from the rapid pace it had fled at with his concentration.

The spark felt like Mephisto.

It flickered in his mind's eye, drawing him closer as if he could cradle it in his hands.

Something pierced his concentration, an unsubtle intrusion like a battering ram to his skull.

Satan cackled, the sound rattling in a discordant echo that had Rin flaring his flames higher where he'd gathered them over Mephisto.

"Looks like he's not doing too well, son," Satan spoke, carrying with it the sensation of a predator poking and digging for weaknesses in a defense.

"Leave already, dammit," Rin growled back. "You're not getting him or Amaimon."

More prowling around the edges in the dark. Rin sent a flicker of power to lash out, another growl rising when Satan's presence danced back and out of the way. Like a rabid hyena laughing as it darted in random lunges to snap at him, waiting for him to slip up and show his weak spots.

"Don't you know? Can't you feel it?" Satan said, continuing as if Rin hadn't responded at all. "He dies. It's inevitable. You're going to _fail_."

_Like hell he was._

"No, it's not. _He's_ not. And we're _not_ going to fail," Rin snarled, pouring strength into his words and his flames until the black lit in a blue sea, tearing away any place for Satan to hide.

"He's not gonna die because I'm going to save him." Rin sent his flames blasting outwards, hearing the cry from Satan that only encouraged him to push more, throwing everything he had into his attack as it raged around them. "Then we're all going back to Assiah and he's going to go back to playing his games and eating his cheap instant noodles and messing around in my life like he always does."

That wisp of flame that made up Mephisto's core fluttered against Rin, a brush to his fires where they ringed him in a protective circle.

Rin felt it, let a small bit of his fire out to reach back, then refocused on Satan.

"He's going to _live_." Certainty matched the weakening, but still furious snarls coming from Satan.

He roared his last command into the inferno, loud enough to shake the world.

"Now _get out of his__** head!**_"

A wash of white tore Rin from that space, feeling Satan tossed from Mephisto and grinning in a savage baring of fangs when he opened his eyes to the physical world despite the ringing in his head from the sudden eviction.

With a final, shrieking howl, Satan faded from his mind, leaving an echoing silence in his wake.

Rin huffed panting breaths, body finally catching up to the fact that the danger had passed for the time being.

Amaimon just looked grim beside him when he glanced over, claws flexing in absent movements at his sides. He'd pulled the hollow tubes from Mephisto and they lay forgotten in the bloodstained dirt.

That wasn't important.

"We did it!" Rin crowed, laughing as he pulled Amaimon into a hug on impulse while the after-battle euphoria sang through his veins and sent his laughter trailing into half-hysteric giggles.

"Hah!" Rin tightened his arms in a squeeze before letting go to slump back on his hands with his eyes closed, still shaking. "That bastard got booted so hard he's going to be feeling it for weeks!"

"Amaimon," Rin said, bright with joy that seeped into his bones and out through his smile, "he's alive in there, he's still fighting."

The remembered flicker of Mephisto's flame to his made him sigh with the relief he felt.

"I felt Mephisto. He reached out to me!" He opened his eyes, then blinked to see the thunderstruck expression set on him from Amaimon.

"Er, Amaimon?" Oh, wait, Rin knew what the problem was. "Ah, sorry about that, the hug. I kinda got carried away. Are you okay? Is he okay?"

Just because Satan had been tossed out on his ass didn't mean Mephisto hadn't suffered injuries that Rin wasn't sure his body could heal anymore.

Lips twitching on Amaimon's face made Rin cock his head to the side with a sound of confusion. It cut off when sharp laughter cracked out from the wide smile now shot at him, Amaimon falling back to mirror his position and head dropping so he stared at the sky instead.

"Yes," Amaimon finally said, a wry cast to his smile when he brought his head back up, "Samael and I are okay."

Good. That was good.

"Awesome," he said, then looked around them, "so, now what?"

His answer was Amaimon rising from the ground with a final shake of his limbs and a snap to fix the mess that had been made of their clothes.

Not that Rin's clothes had suffered much, being protected by his flames that he'd directed to burn anything that wasn't the three of them, but he appreciated it anyway. At least his hair didn't look like it had come out of a wind-tunnel anymore, he was sure.

Rin reached up to his forehead to brush his bangs back only for an obstruction to send him yelping when his claws ran into it and he jerked his hand away.

"What the hell?" Rin prodded at his skull, careful not to touch whatever the hell that had been. "What's on my head?"

A snort reached him and he glared at Amaimon, crossing his arms to see humor dancing in Amaimon's eyes while his face remained almost suspiciously blank. "Alright, seriously, what's on my head?"

Instead of responding, Amaimon snapped and brought a bright pink phone out, handing it to Rin a moment later.

Suspicious, definitely suspicious. Rin gave a final narrowed look to Amaimon before flipping the phone open and bringing up the front-facing camera.

"What the-" Rin gaped, "-Amaimon, do I have horns? Why do I have horns? Is my hair white?"

"Wait." He jerked his head to see his tail, the one he'd barely gotten used to having in the first place, had undergone the same transformation as his hair, now bleached of color and twitching in agitated flicks on the ground.

"It's your true form," Amaimon said with a shrug and a glint in his eyes. "You were unsealed when I broke the sword."

"Oh god, why?" Rin whimpered, hand coming back to his hair and forgetting for a brief, fatal second about the surprises now sprouting from his skull. "Ow! Shit…"

Rin trailed off, fighting the urge to keep poking at his horns and the pout that wanted to form at the teasing he could sense on the horizon.

"Can we please get out of here now?" Anything to get away from the now barren warzone they'd turned the valley into and somewhere that felt less open.

Amaimon let his lips curl into a smirk but nodded and picked up Mephisto to lead them from the area.

It felt weird that just moments ago Rin had been in a fight for their lives with Satan and now they were back to their routine, falling into the new, faster pace Rin could now run at as if nothing had changed. Well, he glanced to his side, darting his gaze back to the front before Amaimon could notice. There was one difference. He didn't need to keep Amaimon in sight to know where he was, could feel the now familiar energy that made up his core as if it were a beacon in the night.

Where before it had been like clouds covered his senses, now things were clear in a way they'd never been and in ways he didn't think he could begin to explain to his friends- to any human, really.

He didn't know what to think or feel about the changes in his body, so he focused on keeping pace with Amaimon over the rapidly inclining route into the clouds. Amaimon didn't follow the same trend he had been up until then, staying low and avoiding the peaks. Now, he took them straight up in a steep climb.

The snow returned, too, and Rin's breath came out in white puffs that vanished behind him, lost in the icy clouds stinging at his cheeks.

That was definitely the weirdest part, Rin decided. Because despite knowing it was probably below freezing and even having grown used to not being bothered by the cold much anymore, the total lack of feeling he now experienced went against everything his eyes and memories of being human was telling him he should be feeling.

If he lay in the snow, would he even know it was cold at all? Or would it just feel like a lukewarm bath, devoid of anything except a vague sensation of wetness.

Rin shuddered at the thought, the only way his body could feel chilled at all, it seemed.

And…

Could he feel heat, even?

It wasn't something he wanted to think about. It sounded like some sort of hell, to not be able to feel anything above the same even, body-temperature for the rest of his life.

So he didn't think about it, shoving the disturbing thoughts about his future aside to keep running.

They practically flew over the distance, miles passing in a gleaming blur with the energy he could now see reflecting off the snow.

At some point that energy seemed to ebb, something Rin didn't notice at first until he blinked and it was as if a shroud had fallen. He brought his hand up to rub at one of his eyes, wondering if he was seeing things, even going so far as to let his irises warp into flames to see if that would do anything.

Nope. Shadow still seemed to cover the land.

"Hey, what's wrong with the sky?" Rin called to Amaimon, getting drawn brows in confusion at his question. "Why'd it get dark all of a sudden?"

More slow blinking, as if Amaimon couldn't process what he was saying. Rin made to try again, because, seriously, there was no way Amaimon hadn't noticed the lack of blinding light on the mountains.

A wide, toothy grin stretched a slow path over Amaimon's face and Rin hid a sigh, knowing he'd stumbled on another obvious thing to demons that he just hadn't picked up on this whole time.

"You can see it now," Amaimon called back, a strange satisfaction in his voice that soothed Rin's ruffled feathers a bit. "It's just the cycle Gehenna goes through. It mirrors the day-night cycle on Assiah."

That was so weird, especially that he hadn't been able to see it before then, but also kinda cool that a whole new part of Gehenna had opened itself to him after his change.

With that question answered, Rin allowed himself to sink into the surroundings, enjoying the enhanced vision even beyond what he'd been able to shift his eyes to see before. Scents came to him on the wind that he couldn't place but were so much more vivid. What would Assiah seem like to him when he made it home? How would things have changed?

He didn't know when it happened, but eventually hunger had begun to grow in an insistent ache in his stomach and the insanity of the day caught up with his body.

Where would they even stay for the night this time anyway? Rin wondered as he signaled Amaimon to stop and got the usual nod without comment.

Though whatever it was, Rin didn't expect for Amaimon to stop where they next landed and punch a hole in the side of the snow-covered mountain ledge. Rin stood, clinging to a frozen section of ice jutting out that he really hoped lasted long enough for Amaimon to finish making his newest den-thing for them before it melted in his hands.

One last scooping motion from Amaimon and he was satisfied, ducking inside with Mephisto as Rin followed behind, glad to release the ice that had begun to let melt-water trickle down his arm.

Flaring his flames left him dry again and Rin shivered with contentedness at not being forced to repress them anymore.

Amaimon still shivered, though, even after closing the entrance to a thin hole to let air in. Rin scrunched his brows at the light tremors he could see as Amaimon settled against the far wall next to Mephisto.

"Hey, are you-" Rin licked at his wind-chapped lips, not knowing how well received his question would be, "-you gotta be cold, right?"

For a second it looked like Amaimon would deny it, would cover it up. But, after a long breath where he didn't blink, he sighed and nodded.

"It's ok," Rin said as he took a seat on the other side of Mephisto, "I can just use my flames, right?"

Another nod, Amaimon watching while he happily rearranged Mephisto so that he had his head in Rin's lap and his cloak draped over the three of them as Rin let his flames out in a steady burn.

Blue light filled the cave with heat Rin didn't quite feel, eliciting a soft exhale out of Amaimon as his body untensed now that he wasn't fighting sub-zero temperatures.

Without him asking, Amaimon snapped and brought out more random assortments of food and snacks that they divvied up between them in silence.

He didn't want to break it, using the task of eating to extend the muffled echoes caused by the flickers of his fire and their movements in the enclosed space.

He didn't want to break it because…

The last of his portion vanished too soon, leaving him down his only method of drawing things out.

Rin couldn't put it off anymore, the thing that had been bothering him that he'd been able to push aside to deal with the immediate danger they'd faced. Flicking the empty container away drew Amaimon's attention and Rin could see him staring from the corner of his eye where he'd rested his chin to his knees.

"Amaimon," Rin hesitated, shifting to mirror Amaimon's pose and staring into the colors of his own flame when he spoke, "I'm sorry, for what I did when you broke the sword."

A shuddering breath left his lips, guilt making him tremble, "I just- I don't know why I did that, but _I'm sorry_."

Amaimon reached over and flicked him in the forehead.

"Wha-" Rin startled with a gasp, drawing back with wide eyes and rubbing his head where it stung.

"Don't be dumb," Amaimon said, though it was so exasperated Rin didn't get a chance to be offended as he continued, "you were just reborn after nearly dying and you stopped yourself despite the instincts in your body."

Oh.

"Ri-right," Rin said, unable to think of another response to the simple way Amaimon worded it, something he should have expected by now.

They fell into silence again, Rin trying to calm his body and convince it to rest despite the energy still making that difficult. Thoughts swirled like his flames and prevented him from sleep, though, and he blurted them out before they could needle him further.

"I still don't understand, what did he want from us, from me?" He searched Amaimon's eyes for an answer. What answer could he give him, anyway? Did it even matter, in the end, what Satan wanted from him? All those demons had spent days chasing he and Amaimon across Gehenna only to die, had let themselves stand there and be possessed by Satan just so he could use their bodies to talk to Rin.

"Father," Amaimon began, slowly, as if picking his words one by one to lay them out for Rin, "is very young."

At this point Rin was used to Amaimon's tendency towards answering questions in ways he didn't understand at first, then explaining so that he did in some twisty string of logic. So he gave him time to finish instead of butting in like he would have at the start.

Amaimon chewed at the tip of a claw, letting it out from under the fabric of Mephisto's cloak as he worried it between his teeth. "He's only in his first century after gaining an ego."

Satan being young clashed with the image Rin had of him in his head, but, now that he thought about it, all his actions gained a childish light, like a kid who hadn't learned to share or what the word "no" meant yet.

"When he formed, Samael and Lucifer were already embroiled in their conflict."

Something about that sentence had Rin watching Amaimon closer, hearing an edge to his words that hinted at an inner turmoil. A buried bitterness.

"Father didn't have the same freedom to experience existence in the way that we did." Rin tried to imagine what the world looked like when Amaimon and the other kings first formed. When had that been? What would it have been like to have been born so long ago and face the problems of those times, instead of the ones they faced today?

And, another comparison forced itself into his thoughts, something that left a sour taste in his mouth but, now that he'd thought it, couldn't put it away again.

"It sounds," Rin trailed off, grimacing at what he was about to say to Amaimon's steady gaze, "it sounds like me, kinda."

His statement got him a cocked head from Amaimon, so he sighed and started scratching at the edges of the cloak where he'd tucked it around Mephisto as he elaborated.

"I found out in one night that there was this whole other world in a war I never knew existed, but suddenly I'm a part of it and there's no going back." And everyone wanted a piece of him, wanted his power or wanted him dead so the other side couldn't get it for themselves.

"Yes, you understand," Amaimon nodded, seemingly pleased that Rin had been able to wrap his head around the concept.

"What Father wants," he said, giving way to a blank expression, turned down at Mephisto so that Rin couldn't see his eyes under his bangs, "doesn't really matter, in the end."

Didn't matter? Rin frowned, trying to reconcile Amaimon's words with the things he knew, or thought he knew.

Peering up at him from beneath dark lashes, Amaimon matched his frown. "Samael and Lucifer will have their way. Father is just another piece in their game."

His words made Rin's breath hitch, eyes widening as he processed them before speaking, "that's crazy, and he doesn't care?"

Amaimon shook his head, scowl deepening. "Father is too young to worry about the future yet. Everything in his world is what's immediate, the present, what he wants now, not what he'll want thousands of years from now."

"Like a kid," Rin said with the realization. Exactly like a kid. There wasn't any real logic to his actions, just instant gratification of whatever desire happened to catch his attention for more than a second.

"Okay." Then really…

"It's not what he wants, but what _they_ want, right?" Rin felt the edges of reality, the broad scope of it defined with the new knowledge and looking to Amaimon for confirmation.

"Yes." Hard, the word pulled from Amaimon had Rin's brows drawing to see the worsening mood.

"And," Rin darted his tongue to his lips, wondering if he was pushing too hard, if he should let it go while he was ahead, "what do you want?"

The beginnings of a growl rumbled from Amaimon, still soft, but the small den made it seem like it came directly into Rin's ear.

"I don't want to be a _pawn_," Amaimon snarled, sudden rage highlighting his features in the blue flames as he spat his words at an unaware Mephisto.

His claws tore holes where they clenched in the cloak, body tensed like he wanted to attack but didn't have an outlet and Rin's pulse raced at the sight.

Gold flashed when that reptilian gaze jerked to his on a warping face. Rare emotion that seemed to have come from nowhere now overtook Amaimon and Rin knew he'd pressed too far.

"I will not be another player in their war!" His shout made Rin startle, staring from wide eyes and frozen against the stone at his back.

"He-" Amaimon shot another glare into Mephisto's unaware face, "-and Lucifer won't rest until we're all killing each other for their game, until they're the only two left and there's no one to challenge them."

Where had this come from? Rin couldn't think of what to say to calm Amaimon and the storm of his fury.

How long had Amaimon been holding that emotion for?

And…

He felt the words tumble from his mouth, unable to stop himself from speaking.

"You're still helping him."

Amaimon stopped, growls cut off and pupils dilating in his eyes like he'd been stunned.

All that anger twisting up inside Amaimon, and he still helped, still fought to save Mephisto. Why?

He could have left Mephisto and Rin in that alley and been done with it. Rin would have fought and eventually been brought down, his attempts failed before they'd begun. Was it because if either side, Mephisto or Lucifer, fell, he would be automatically forced into a decision?

Rin had to know. He spoke again before Amaimon recovered, pinning him in place with an unwavering look and wondering if he'd get an answer.

"Why did you decide to help me, really, Amaimon?"

It was Amaimon's turn to flinch back, shoulders hitting the wall and blinking, thrown from the whirlwind of his emotions, left adrift in their wake.

Would he answer Rin? He'd only just revealed why he owed Mephisto. That- Rin knew what he asked for was more than that.

Fangs, no longer extended to brutal wedges, worried at Amaimon's lip until blood dripped down his chin. Rin had to stop himself from letting his flames burn it from his skin.

Another long minute passed. Amaimon came to a decision.

"Because you're honest," he said, and Rin sucked in a sharp breath, realizing Amaimon was going to answer him after all. "You wanted to save Samael without any ulterior motive."

His mind drew back to all the times Amaimon had seemed surprised by him, but specifically the first time when Yukio had demanded to know what he'd been thinking, taking Mephisto from the Order.

And Amaimon deciding then and there to help.

"None of the others would be able to say that," Amaimon said, not noticing the revelation Rin had just had. "No one on Assiah or Gehenna could say that."

"Except...you?" Rin hesitated in saying, sensing the delicate nature of the subject he'd just brought up.

Amaimon stared at him in silence for a long while until Rin thought he should change the subject.

"No," Amaimon dropped his gaze, something like guilt putting lines in the corners of his eyes, and his next words came out soft, almost bitter, "no, just you."

Rin didn't know what to do with that information or Amaimon's own honesty, was shocked that he even displayed something so human-like in the first place that he didn't know how to react at all.

"So you," he paused again, chewing at his lips as he tried to wrap his head around it, "you're helping Mephisto because I decided to help him, but not because I'm on his side?"

Shrugging and Amaimon turning his head to look at something he seemed to find interesting on the far wall had Rin wondering if he'd gotten it right after all.

"You weren't choosing a side," Amaimon said, shoulders slumping as he turned back to face Rin with a blank expression like he hid a turbulence underneath. "You weren't playing his or Lucifer's game."

He hadn't chosen a side, remembered yelling it for everyone to hear at his trial, that he wasn't some weapon for the Order _or_ a demon king. He was Rin Okumura and he would make his own path.

"You chose your own side." The words froze Rin's breath again, mirroring the memories that had started playing in his head. His heart had begun thudding at his ribs as he listened to Amaimon speak like he was imparting a secret he'd told no one else.

"And," low, but firm, with no room for doubt, "it's why I chose to side with you."

What? Rin's eyes widened, searching for hidden meaning and unable to find any in the eyes staring back at him through the flames without flinching.

"What do you-" Rin stumbled over his sentence, lips gone numb as he sat, stunned, against the wall while his mind raced to process what he'd just heard.

Amaimon didn't let him get time to recover, steamrolling over his confusion to lay out what he meant so that Rin understood him in no uncertain terms. "In this war, I'm going to fight on your side, whichever path you take."

That was- it was huge. A level of trust Rin couldn't begin to know what to do with, feeling heavy with the weight of the world and a responsibility Rin was afraid he'd fail to live up to.

"Amaimon you- I wouldn't ever ask you to do that, you don't need to," he tried to say, clutching his hands in the cloak over Mephisto's chest and rushing through the words like he could get Amaimon to take his back.

Instead, Amaimon seemed to shrink in on himself, gaze locked on Mephisto where Rin gripped him and voice quieting. "That's why. You offer freedom."

It hit Rin, then, as he watched Amaimon bite into his lip again and hunch his body until it looked painful. Reality and his role in things meant he couldn't run anymore. It wasn't just his own life and freedom hinging on his decisions, so he had to stop hiding.

His shivers calmed with his determination just as Amaimon's began, body releasing intermittent trembles the longer Rin's silence continued.

Rin reached out and pulled Amaimon's shuddering frame into his hold.

The shivers stopped and a hissed breath escaped Amaimon as he stilled in Rin's arms.

"What are you doing?"

Yeah what was he doing? A flush rose to Rin's cheeks at the question but he didn't let go, happy that Amaimon couldn't see his face, at least.

"Sorry, you looked like you needed it."

"Needed?" Amaimon parroted back, hands coming up to grip over Rin's shoulders.

"I'm not going to fail you- or him," Rin said, ducking his chin to the crook of Amaimon's neck and inhaling there as he spoke the words of his promise, "if I have to go through everyone in Gehenna and Assiah, if I have to fight Lucifer and Satan and the Order to do it, I will."

A muffled sound escaped Amaimon from where he hid his face, ears twitching and fingers flexing into Rin's shirt while he processed.

That was probably enough for the crazy day they'd had.

"Hey," he murmured, pulling back to see the dilated pupils that showed Amaimon still hadn't quite recovered, "you should sleep first, I've still got too much energy right now but I'll be good to try by the time you wake up, I think."

Three hours for Amaimon to sleep and three for him would be more than enough for them to prepare for the upcoming conflict, possibly the final conflict, with Lucifer.

Amaimon gave a short nod, and Rin wondered when he'd decide to speak again, fighting the smile that wanted to form.

Then Amaimon vanished in a poof of smoke, making Rin blink as he tried to figure out where he'd gone.

Light scratching at his wrist brought his gaze down to see a round, green hamster with Amaimon's odd headspike jutting from between his little ears.

Cautious sniffing and the energy he could sense in the small body confirmed it.

"You can use less of your flames if I stay in this form," the high-pitched voice was still Amaimon's too, and Rin shook his head, flames dropping to just enough to cover Mephisto as Amaimon scurried up to hide in his collar.

Claws scraped in a series of light tickling sensations on his skin that Rin resisted laughing at.

"I didn't know you could transform like Mephisto," he said, bringing a finger up to run down the soft fur of Amaimon's spine.

He could feel the heartbeat flutter in the delicate ribcage and tried not to let it affect his view of Amaimon's power he could also feel compressed into that small form.

Cute. Amaimon was really cute. Rin tucked that thought away, smiling as Amaimon nestled further into his spot.

"We all can," Amaimon said in answer. Then a sudden touch of a wet tongue to Rin's skin made his pulse skip before remembering it was considered some kind of reward-thing for demons to do, not making a big thing about the unspoken thanks.

Some instinct in him had what sounded like purrs vibrating in his chest, which, if he could sprout fangs and claws, why not purring?

Rin accepted the newest demonic feature about himself and settled in for his watch.

In his lap, Mephisto's slow, even breaths continued like a metronome.

* * *

He remembered.

Not the one thing he needed. Not his name.

But he'd remembered Abduxuel beyond his concept, had seen the memories they shared, and though it hadn't given him his name, he could guess things about himself that helped define his own concept.

The things he knew now were this: he was most certainly a demon, not that the possibility of his being human had been very high to begin with, but he hadn't wanted to eliminate it outright until he knew for sure. He was also very old, having been around for uncounted generations of humans alongside his other half. He'd enjoyed toying with human lives, been fascinated by them, something he could have said even without the memories confirming it. And he'd been powerful, but not more so than two others, his twin aspect and another whose name he couldn't recall but who he suspected was related to that blinding being he'd seen in the memory of Abduxuel's death.

Despite the wealth of information he'd gleaned in his memories with Abduxuel, his name remained frustratingly hidden.

And he _needed_ his name.

It felt like he had one half of the equation, but without the other half, it was meaningless.

His only option would be to keep trying to uncover the memories he may or may not have shared with Amaimon, which, if the trend continued, he would gain next. There still existed the chance that their only connection was through Abduxuel, not having anything like the claim between them to indicate they'd known each other.

Never mind that the second voice hadn't known Abduxuel at all, needing to be told by Amaimon who he was, so he still had no idea what their connection could be, if any.

Impatience for his two voices had him wishing he could move to fidget, but at this point the frustration was an old wound, scar tissue that itched at him instead of actively bleeding out. If he ignored the itch, the incessant need to scratch at it faded to the background of his mind.

The world rippled around him as if in answer. Harsher than the others before it, like a large object had been hurled into his prison.

"_Agh!_"

A scream. Pained. The second voice?

Cracking split through the haze in a sound of shattering, superheated metal that threw the reliefs of his voices up before his eyes in the next moment.

Amaimon, distress lining his every feature, gold irises eclipsing the pupil that had slivered until it nearly disappeared, and staring at…

There, shuddering on the ground in stricken agony, was the second voice. Every second he weakened until glazed eyes stared up at him and only faint breaths shivered from his parted lips.

Black veins shot through from puncture wounds, spreading even while he watched, straight towards the second voice's heart. His body wasn't fighting it off. He looked like he was dying. The power at his core grew dim.

What was happening? Had they been attacked? And how had whatever it was slipped through Amaimon's guard?

His mind flew back to the last remembered scene, trying to understand and only able to conclude that somehow, between the memory of Abduxuel and the second voice on death's door, they had been attacked by some venomous creature.

Before he could try to glean more, the scene fell away, Amaimon dropping what looked like a broken sword by the second voice and leaping to a distant vantage point. Why was he leaving the second voice there?

Confusion and alarm had his heart racing, eyes flicking in his skull as he tried to understand and couldn't.

Far above, the second voice burst into blue flame that dug at something in his memory he couldn't place.

And he burned, skin blackening to ash and screams cutting off until only a charcoaled corpse remained, his brilliant power reduced to nothing.

He can't- he _couldn't_ be-

Horror stopped his panicked heart, followed by cold, desperate fear as he gasped shallow breaths, unable to do anything to display how seeing the still body of the second voice above him sent sick dread in the same tendrils that had attacked the second voice's heart.

What was _happening?_

Help remained unforthcoming from his only other source. Amaimon sat, looking as shaken as he felt, a helplessness in his gaze and searching as if sightless, like he couldn't see the second voice. Why wasn't he doing something? Or was there nothing he could do?

No. There was _always_ a way, another route, a path that just needed to be uncovered if one was persistent enough or clever enough to see it. He wouldn't accept otherwise. He _refused_.

Amaimon's mouth parted on a face warped by wretched dismay, breaking his usual apathetic expression with raw emotion.

And then...

A whisper across the waters, ragged, like it had been pulled from a torn throat.

R i n

Blue fire exploded upwards from the second voice's body and broke his mind.

_PowerincarnateagodamortalasublimemixturebetweenAssiahandGehenna__**Rin**__._

Rin. Rin! The deluge cast out the fear from inside, washing his mind on a tidal wave of power and the blue flames of Gehenna.

This was the second voice? The one he'd thought of as a naive nephilim for the entire journey?

Every assumption he'd built over the course of watching his two voices began and ended with the blue pillar currently enveloping the second voice- _Rin_.

How was such a creature possible? It was no wonder Rin had an execution order out for his head, was important enough to warrant one. He comprised the _entirety_ of Gehenna and all the creatures spawned from it, and he'd gone so long suppressing that power for reasons he still couldn't understand. Where had it been while they ran from hordes of pursuants? When he faced off with the voice that crackled like fire?

The exhaustion that tried to well up in him got ruthlessly shoved aside. As if he would give in to his body's demands when he saw Amaimon's unease hadn't lessened, only hardened, despite Rin having just fought off near death.

Awe replaced the panic on Amaimon, even if fear still pinched his eyes, while the flames dwindled around Rin, though that just meant they flared in a ball of pure power, concentrated around a body reborn.

Ash that had coated his skin had blown away in the fire, leaving Rin unharmed and standing at the epicenter of the explosion. If his tail had seemed beautiful before, now, with inky black replaced by a white that glowed under the light of his power, he had become ethereal, a true demon.

But that was nothing compared to the demonic heart floating above his chest between the clawed hands Rin held in inspection. He didn't think he'd breathed since the pillar had gone up. His pulse drowned out every other sound where it pounded in his ears as he drank in the sight of the core of Rin's power.

He could have stared for an eternity.

He didn't have an eternity.

Glowing irises warped into the same fire that surrounded Rin and now looked straight up at him as a smile like a knife cut across elongated fangs.

Alarm blared through his senses despite knowing the attention turned towards him was to Amaimon. Even were he there, the creature behind those eyes would have no interest in unmoving prey.

Not when it had its sights set on a more interesting target.

Amaimon was in danger.

_Move. He's coming for you!_

Too late. He saw Amaimon duck to run, but already claws traced to the vulnerable artery in his throat where he could see a thrumming pulse flutter with terror.

A _true_ demon toyed with the prey caught between his claws like some cat that had found a particularly entertaining mouse. It wasn't a question of _if_ the mouse would get eaten, only when.

And Amaimon knew how precarious his situation was, frozen under the power now surrounding him in a constant outpouring of blue flame. Rin's fire licked over the limbs he could see trembling despite the effort Amaimon must have been making to suppress the prey signals.

There would be no surviving when the monster at Amaimon's back chose to attack.

"Amaimon," Rin said in a dark voice he'd never heard from him before, calling to mind when he'd threatened the other nameless voice but this time backed up with that power he just now saw in full.

When the two had faced off in that previous scene, he'd thought the fight would be a balanced thing, the tension implying an even match. Now he could see how wrong he'd been.

"You said I might die if I used the sword," so they'd known breaking the sword he'd seen Amaimon toss aside would have this outcome, "I feel _great_, like I want to let out all my flames."

If that happened, he didn't need Amaimon's obvious terror to calculate his chances of survival.

Energy flared in the fires around Amaimon on Rin's command and buried his aspect in the heart of it, threatening to consume him in the inferno.

"Will you let me, Amaimon? It'll be fun." The dire situation didn't seem to have a solution, something he could see Amaimon knew the longer he didn't respond, as if his silence would convince Rin to lose interest with an unwilling plaything.

"Come on, I want to play."

The danger crested on the enticing illusion spun in the croon of Rin's voice, a wave swelling to monstrous heights. When it broke, there wouldn't be anything remaining in the aftermath.

"That's what you've wanted this whole time, right, Amaimon?" Shivers tried to run through his body on that growl, unable to do anything but watch as Amaimon choked in Rin's tightening hold. All the times Amaimon had tried to initiate some form of play flashed across his memory and he realized Rin hadn't been as indifferent to those advances as they'd thought, and this creature he'd become remembered each one.

"Don't _ignore_ _me_, Amaimon."

Gagging and kicking in Rin's grip wouldn't save Amaimon from the claws piercing holes in his jugular, held up in a vicious demand for attention as blood slid over the cruel fingers stealing his breath in a threatening creak of his windpipe.

"Say something. Why won't you play with me?" A careless movement sent Amaimon flying.

At this point, Amaimon giving in to those demands wouldn't change the outcome any, and he had no idea whether the fickle creature doing the demanding could be swayed from his current path.

They'd passed the point of no return, but he didn't know what options Amaimon had to turn the tides.

And, he didn't think Rin would handle the inevitable conclusion well.

What blood had come from Amaimon after his brutal path over jagged stone was eaten in the flames still surrounding him where he'd landed in a heap.

Flee now! Why wasn't he taking advantage of the distance, minute as it was? Frustration at Amaimon's lack of action flared hot in his lungs, a seething anger that Amaimon just curled around his middle like he hadn't already shown his belly to the more powerful demon advancing.

Instead, he had to watch as Rin wrapped his tail around Amaimon's throat and _squeezed_, until, like a wild animal, Amaimon retaliated, clawing at the noose cutting off his air to send blood to stain the white fur.

Rin didn't tolerate the retaliation. He watched those blue flames envelope Amaimon as howls and screams rose in a horrible cacophony, invading every corner of his prison and his mind.

This was it, he could see the end. All of Amaimon's possibilities dwindled with every moment those flames melted more of his flesh from his bones and stopped his screams in his cooking lungs.

Something changed in Rin, his features falling from the shallow mask they'd been in to an exaggerated expression of anguish, like he was the one burned by the flames. They dwindled, releasing Amaimon from the inferno to reveal his ruined face.

But he recovered, enough to breathe, at least, while Rin panted with his confused rage.

"Why?" Had Amaimon's hearing returned enough to hear the question? Would Rin even give him the opportunity to answer? "You won't play with me. Why?"

Skin reformed over exposed muscle and tendon, an angry red that faded as Amaimon opened his eyelids to reveal gold irises, watery with tears his vessel would have produced automatically in response to the assault.

"Rin," Amaimon said in a pained rasp. It appeared he'd heard after-all. He held his breath, knowing this would be Amaimon's last chance to survive. "Will you leave him there, Rin?"

Who? Leave him?

Rin echoed his confusion, pulling away.

"Have you given up on your human displays?" Amaimon said, glaring as he prevented Rin from escaping his words. Whatever he spoke of, it sent Rin reeling and brought less understanding to him as he struggled through previous scenes to place what Amaimon was talking about.

"If-if - dies here, that's it. You wanted to save him, Rin. You-"

Again, a reference to someone they wanted to save, the reason behind their journey. Was this being they spoke of, the one his racing mind recalled from a previous scene, enough to bring Rin back? How much worth did they carry, and would it save Amaimon?

Challenge pierced into Rin, though Amaimon hung limp from the coils of his tail, fighting through another gagging gasp when his defiance brought a spasm to tighten the noose and showed just how affected Rin was.

"-You told me that's why you're here," this was it. His lungs ached and he remembered to breathe, "remember, Rin?"

Flame-warped eyes widened.

A gasp, an internal battle behind those blue eyes containing Gehenna that lasted an eternity.

Eternity stretched on a breath. Two.

Rin came back.

The flames in his eyes faded to the vibrant blue irises and slit red pupils he'd know anywhere now.

He was _back_.

"Amaimon, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I-" eyelids shuttered, Rin collapsed and Amaimon dropped with him, released from his hold.

If he could have groaned out loud, he would have, stunned by the relief that somehow total catastrophe had been averted. He closed his own eyes and sucked in a long breath through his nose, letting his heart calm.

Snapping, sharp after the silence with the dispersal of Rin's fire, shattered the peace and he dragged his lids open, not realizing he'd almost let the damned sleep take him under in his inattention.

"Wha-" Rin shared his confusion, with hurt added to the mix as he tried to hide from Amaimon like he'd be attacked for his actions.

"We have to go, Rin." Another snap to re-clothe Rin and bring him from the ground. The light of his demonic heart swirled away, taking the rest of the blue fire with it.

Why?

"- is coming."

Meaningless. Who was coming? Why did it have both his voices jolting into immediate action and launching themselves from the mountainside like they were already under attack? Was it that blinding voice? Another powerful being? He couldn't imagine what equal there could be to Rin's strength, what rival there could be to Gehenna.

Surely, now that Rin was no longer hindered by what he'd just realized must have been a seal on his demonic heart somehow contained within the now broken sword, there wasn't anything to fear.

The grim expressions on their faces told otherwise.

A sudden loud crack through the air stuttered his pulse in surprise. Tension pulled his voices' features taut.

At the second crack, Rin looked back.

Whatever he saw put panic on his face and more energy into his leaps, mirrored by Amaimon at his side.

"How close are we?" Rin shouted, "can we make it?"

Close to where? It was infuriating that he missed such important context.

The answer that came from Amaimon didn't clarify things. "Not close enough."

Could it be the massive horde chasing them from a few scenes ago?

Sharp whistling, and something speared through Amaimon's chest from behind and through to the other side with an outpouring of arterial blood.

In the back of his mind he registered that the object must have cut the aorta of Amaimon's vessel as he tumbled from the sky with a sharp cry.

Rin wrenched his body around to go back for Amaimon, landing and guarding him while he healed.

Snarls from Rin almost covered the sounds of another, the high-pitched screech going out to what had to be the rest of their pursuers.

Something else answered the cry.

If he'd thought the waters of his prison had been still before, they went dead with the arrival of the new presence on the edges of his senses.

_What is this?_

Then his prison shook and blue flames erupted before Rin, reflected in his eyes and washing the haze of his prison in vivid color.

They were not Rin's flames.

Hissing tried to push itself from his chest, eyelids clenching shut on the light of that fire so close and leading to him missing the build-up to what followed.

"Found you, my son!"

That presence vanished, blue flames swallowed by his prison again as his eyes shot open on those words.

His...son?

They already ran from the area, and now he could hear the horde behind them, having caught up while Amaimon recovered. Some of the quicker demons must have made it into range because Rin lashed out with a plume of fire that split the horizon of the prison to incinerate them mid-cry.

None of that mattered right then. He couldn't move past the information thrown out from that vast presence neither Rin nor Amaimon had acted to indicate was a surprise at all.

Was this what had been keeping them on the move at such a frantic pace the entire time? Another one of the names he couldn't hear in previous scenes but a looming threat nonetheless?

Because that presence had screamed with the same otherworldly call of Gehenna that Rin carried.

Laughter, bright and half-hysteric forced his mind back to the present, seeing Amaimon just as startled by Rin's apparent humor as he had been.

"Just thinking. - and my old man would be so proud of me for following orders so well this whole time. That's never happened before!"

Unbelievable. He wanted to laugh right along with Rin. The feral grin Amaimon fell into shook the rest of his rapid-fire thoughts free and allowed him to untangle the strings of his web. This scene was a scene for surprises and revelations, it seemed. The momentary scare he'd taken had been overcome.

Just in time for his two voices to touch down, coming to a stop after their frantic dash.

This would be their chosen battlefield, then, where they would face the hordes of enemies and the other aspect comprising Gehenna.

"Rin," the earlier humor had faded from Amaimon, leaving behind a solemn gaze, "you've done well."

Would their strength be enough? Could they last? Without knowing what the other side had at their disposal, it was impossible to say what would happen. He could guess, but the data to complete the calculation was missing and anything could happen to change the outcome of their fight.

"Amaimon?" The sounds of the horde signaled their nearing proximity, but didn't cover Rin's voice, "I'm glad you're with me. I'm glad you chose to help."

Their exchange quieted his thoughts, everything falling beneath the surface as he realized they'd come down to the wire. If they died here, if they survived, only time would tell. He just had to wait.

Amaimon dropped his human facade, scales rippling over his limbs and growing to cover the vicious reptilian claws he now sported. All that was missing was that vivid red heart he'd seen him with when he'd remembered his name to complete the picture.

"Oh, one more thing, Rin," Amaimon said, and the bloodlust he could see in his glowing eyes had his heart rate picking up again in anticipation.

"Use your flames."

Amaimon vanished and the fight began.

Use your flames. He wanted to watch Amaimon, could see him far above attacking with brutal efficiency when he met the horde, but his focus couldn't be pulled off Rin.

A slow smile stole across Rin's face, as if he luxuriated in the blue embers rising from the surface of his skin and highlighting the way his irises once again warped to match. The flames sank down.

_Power_ exploded out like creation itself, like the universe at its inception, setting his blood to sing in his veins and his mind to vanish beneath a blue wave.

Screams made it through his rushing pulse from where the flames must have already met Rin's enemies. He couldn't see, still adrift in a blinding firestorm.

He lost time, sure that his eyes were open but unable to absorb anything beyond the energy tearing over the horizon of his prison. His mouth gaped and he imagined those flames must be pouring in and filling him to the brim until he thought he would disappear, eaten down to the core.

Blue parted in a discordant burst across his senses and that other aspect of Gehenna dove towards Rin.

Rin gasped as he saw the incoming attack and raised a claw in defense.

How was he expecting to attack the being that called itself his father? Did it have some physical vessel he just couldn't see past its core? Rin's hand shoving straight into the energy stopped its momentum and brought him into contact, the blue fire clashing with Rin's.

It spoke, "so wonderful to see you, my son!"

What did it want? It wasn't attacking? Was only- "and you've even brought your errant sibling home."

"A lost lamb..." the voice faded, "...returned to the flock…"

-Mocking. The voice was only mocking. He noted Rin, could see him shivering as if an attack had made it through to stun him and a small part wanted to join him, shaken by something he couldn't place.

Did it mean Amaimon? A quick glance across the horizon showed him darting through Rin's flames, his power gleaming over the distance as he continued the massacre. Surely if it meant Amaimon, it would be focusing at least a portion of its attention that way.

Snarling from Rin and a billowing fire-spout into the air wrenched his gaze back as Rin recovered to return to his half of the horde.

Around him, chaos reigned, a cacophony of battle cries and death rattles and always Rin's flames or the sounds of the earth moving. But without a visual he could only rely on those sounds as indication of the tide of the fight.

The latest plume of Rin's attack dissipated to reveal the opposing Gehenna had shown again.

"And you've been bonding!" once more, the foreign flames got in Rin's space, as if they were trying to wrap themselves around his core to snuff it out, "it's so great to see siblings getting along."

"Bastard," Rin hissed, and he wanted to hiss right along with him, beginning to understand the shape of what that other Gehenna was attempting to do.

Cackling laughter accompanied the words, "It's too bad-"

Vindication curled through him when Rin put a stop to the grating voice. Though he had to force a long inhale to calm himself a moment later when the feeling registered. He shouldn't be allowing something like his emotions to become so overpowering when he needed all the information he could get, whether from Rin and Amaimon or any of the other voices they interacted with in these scenes.

Becoming emotional wouldn't help him recover his name, neither would it change the outcome of this battle. He still had no idea whether the events were happening as he watched them or were past events, already decided.

Either way, he wouldn't be affecting the course of events.

That fact wasn't a surprise at this point of his imprisonment so he didn't know why it made his mood sour. He took in the way Rin lashed out with more fire, his own frustration painting his features as if he hadn't met his target.

Rumbling started, closer than what he heard from Amaimon, and the other aspect of Gehenna returned as Rin cried out, jerking his gaze down with bared fangs to the invasive flames crawling up his leg from below.

"You didn't let me finish, son," the other Gehenna said, his flames prodding over Rin as if searching for an exploitable weakness, "I was only saying how sad it was that this is all for _nothing_."

"Fuck you," came the hissed rejoinder, ineloquent, but those flames cut off with Rin's attack and hadn't found a chink in his armor so it didn't matter. He understood the situation then.

When Rin sent up one of those breath-stealing roars, getting one from Amaimon in turn that had his eyes shuttering for a brief moment, he took another to hope that at least Amaimon would know the danger Rin was in the longer the other Gehenna besieged him.

From what he could tell, the horde had lessened, unable to last against the combined power Rin and Amaimon wielded. Victory seemed on the horizon, if Rin's wild laughter and savage delight was any indication.

Sparks from Rin's fire threw his face in sharp relief and made his eyes fever-bright while a following wave washed up into the haze, another chorus of screams rising with it.

And left behind the other Gehenna. Rin didn't hesitate, looking to have shucked the confusion from the previous altercations. Good. That would protect him from the other Gehenna's advances.

"He doesn't look so good," again, those flames licked at the ones surrounding Rin. His eyes narrowed at the sight and an ache started in his chest where he wanted to growl. "He was always a weirdo, though. I'd say his looks have improved!"

"Wouldn't you, son?"

Wait. His urge whisked away as the taunt pulled him back to the fight. Who was the other Gehenna talking about? There wasn't anyone else besides Amaimon on the field that Rin would have a vested interest in. So who?

But Rin didn't offer anything that would give him a hint to the identity of the person.

"No, I wouldn't." The other Gehenna vanished before Rin's cold gaze and even colder words.

Someone they wanted to save.

And.

He doesn't look so good.

Both of those individual pieces of information on their own added to the narrative he'd been building after every new scene he witnessed. He just needed a final piece to the puzzle and he could unlock a keystone to the entire story, a linchpin to the web.

Possibly a clue to his identity.

Rin's fire died until it covered his body, shrinking from the inferno it had been to a glowing shroud. Further away, a twin flame sprouted back into existence near Amaimon. Silence reigned in his prison, only disturbed by the shift of shoes against gravel as Rin leapt to touch down before that flame.

He was allowed to join Amaimon without a move being made against them, the two sharing a look before facing the last of their enemies. Even with the signs of strain on Amaimon's vessel from overuse, he still radiated the same raw power as Rin, their stances firm and unbroken and ready for the final storm.

Any concern that the foreign flames would present a danger to Amaimon soothed when Rin let his reach out to envelope him too in an added defense.

"Here we are," the other Gehenna spoke, continuing the narrative it had been building the entire confrontation, "and isn't this much better? So much more intimate."

"What do you want?" Rin said, though he didn't think the other Gehenna would have anything to say that he would find useful and by Rin's glacial tone he was well aware of that likelihood.

That flame vanished again before it could answer, reappearing a moment later a few feet to the side. The setting clicked in his head as he realized it must have been possessing the remaining demons from the horde to use as living mouthpieces. Sacrifices.

"I want what I have from the start. You, my dear son."

Exactly as he'd thought. Though while the answer didn't offer Rin any closure, it gave him more of a picture into what made the other Gehenna tick. And what had been happening the entire fight. How much of what the other Gehenna was attempting did Amaimon know about? The rest of the voices they'd spoken with all seemed to understand more about Gehenna and possibly this being than Rin did.

"Too bad," Rin said in a deep growl that shook him from his thoughts, "it's not happening."

The words left Rin from a shivering chest, and he could see the tension running whipcord up his spine. At his side, Amaimon stood with deceptive calm, though violence lurked beneath that placid facade.

"What's the matter?" rasped the words from the hungry flames where they consumed the next host, "Too busy to spend time with your daddy? I'm hurt!"

Those mocking words all but confirmed his suspicions.

"Yeah, I am," came Rin's hiss, clearly losing patience with the farce of a conversation.

"I understand," another body had been taken, "you're having fun playing with your siblings."

Siblings. _Plural_. Another reference to a third person. Unless it was talking about the other voices Rin had interacted with? The possibilities narrowed further, options cutting away bits of the loose threads to reveal the few strongest.

"You sure picked a boring one to play with. Which child were you again?" It was talking about Amaimon, the sneering tone deadening Amaimon's expression further. But Rin froze.

Of course. To a being comprising all of Gehenna, the concept of Earth wouldn't seem anything noteworthy, a drop in a cosmic bucket to the flames that it had originated from. He watched the burgeoning fury bloom in Rin's eyes at the insult anyway and knew that to Rin, half-human as he was, a single aspect was more important than the whole. Amaimon held more importance.

"Oh wait, I remember. You're the dirt king!"

That did it. Rin's eyes flared at the childish stab, a step away from lashing out and breaking the stand-still. Another chink in the armor.

"Rin," Amaimon said, a simple call of his name without inflection but it got Rin's immediate attention.

His gaze drew to the sudden movement from Amaimon and he felt his breath catch. Rin's did too, anger fading out the moment claws pressed in a soft touch to his inner wrist. Such a strange thing to see from a demon, from Amaimon, whose obliviousness to human social norms rivaled Rin's about the demonic.

How _human_.

"It doesn't matter which you play with," had the other Gehenna not seen the touch? Something so vulnerable would have given it a clear opening past Rin's defenses to take advantage of, the obvious weakness like blood in the water.

Instead, "once the weirdo dies, you'll have nowhere left to run and then you'll be coming home to _me_."

Who? His heart skipped a beat.

"Yeah, I will be coming back. And I'll be coming for you. You can count on it." Threat painted every word from Rin's mouth, a dire promise he barely comprehended because his mind couldn't leave the newest piece of information.

"Wonderful!" Then I'll just be waiting for a few more days and we'll have our family reunion."

He strained to catch more, a building need in his gut for that last unspoken information he could feel on the other side of their conversation. Just a little more.

"It's inevitable, you know-" The words cut off with the dissipating blue flames and a scream built in his chest at the newest stolen opportunity.

So close. He'd been _so close_ to something important.

The final demon from the horde must have died with the other Gehenna because it didn't return and Rin allowed his flames to absorb back into his body.

It didn't feel safe yet.

"Amaimon are we-" Rin turned just as Amaimon began to choke on his blood.

Tension snapped through him at the sight of Amaimon bowing over and bleeding from internal damage that spoke of an attack on his host.

There were still two bodies available for possession. _Of course_ that other Gehenna wouldn't have left yet. The final stages of its plan had just begun. He'd been right in his suspicions

"Amaimon what-?"

Amaimon confirmed them further with his snarl, digging claws into his arms to ground himself in his own vessel.

"You can't have me, -."

Yes. Amaimon would know how to fend off such an attack. The only question would be if he had the strength to do it, and how determined the other Gehenna was to push Amaimon out.

Already, Amaimon trembled, his eyes taking on a hazy sheen and focused inward as he fought the parasite tearing at his hold on his host

At least Rin was safe, surrounded by his own flames as he was, most likely an automatic defense his subconscious had thrown up. Would he realize in time that he could use them to defend Amaimon too?

One movement too far sent Amaimon falling, no longer able to support himself as he toppled down. But he'd been lucky, he saw, as Amaimon fell into Rin's outheld, flame-wreath hand and hissed at the shock of those flames to his skin.

Good! Rin just had to recognize the effect and act on it!

Then they would be rid of the threat besieging them for the time being.

"Come on, Amaimon, don't let him win. You're stronger than this," came the taut whisper from Rin. He'd lowered Amaimon to rest against him, face a mixture of fury and concern and helplessness.

Whoever had been responsible for raising Rin had utterly failed, leaving him so unaware of the power he wielded, the potential he carried, what he could do with the flames making up his core and what he was.

And it might well lead to Amaimon's loss of a vessel, the loss of whatever their quest was, if Rin couldn't figure it out.

Rin brushed his hand over Amaimon's fever-flushed skin, the flames chasing some of that unhealthy pallor away until he settled his palm to his forehead and released a short breath, eyes widening before narrowing in a glare.

"Amaimon. _Fight_."

That burning stare seemed to look beyond the physical world. Had Rin discovered his abilities?

"No, you can't have me, either," Rin's voice snapped like sparks from a bonfire and he knew that he had, eyes shuttering in a heavy relief. There'd been no hesitation in Rin, no weakness for that other Gehenna to exploit. He wouldn't be taking Rin or Amaimon's bodies.

Convulsions began in Amaimon, gasping a ragged breath that sprayed blood from his lungs but, in a final shudder, he slumped, panting and exhausted but no longer surrounded by the parasitic energy of the other Gehenna.

Safe, they were safe.

He closed his eyes, finally, knowing he could relax and debating on whether he could give into his own exhaustion that he'd been fighting ever since Rin had awoken.

Something sent prickles along his skin, a sense of danger looming that told him the threat may have lessened, but not left.

What-

Blue flared in a blinding glow around his prison, whiting his vision out even when his eyelids slammed shut against the intrusive light.

A scream pushed at his ribs, agony ripping at every cell of his being like he would be torn apart and confusion whirling in a riptide that tried to pull him under a merciless undertow.

Where had the attack come from? Pain like he hadn't experienced since those ancient memories of formation left him floundering.

_It hurts it hurts it hurts_

Existence funneled into one point drilling into his psyche, a maddening fire from all angles, inescapable no matter which way his mind tried to flee.

Black spots danced amongst the blue light, his lungs ached until he realized with alarming clarity that he'd started suffocating, the waters he drifted in rising up to cover his nose and mouth.

Then he went completely under.

Red drifted in the swirling waters, the kaleidoscope of color leaving him blindsided and overwhelmed in an animal panic.

The blue reached his core and he shook on a toppling axis.

_GehennathealphatheomegacreationfirethatspawnedatthebeginningofeverythingSatan__**Father**_

Everything made sense for one, vividly clear moment.

Father. Gehenna. Satan

He was being shoved out of his vessel. A forced possession tearing at the bindings of the chains holding him there within his prison.

And, he couldn't ignore the exhaustion dragging him down this time, not after the second consecutive name he'd remembered.

Too much, it was too much!

He couldn't hold on anymore. Air bubbled up from his lungs, gone numb after so long beneath the water.

One silent thought made it through the encroaching darkness. If he died here, he'd never get to see the end of Rin and Amaimon's story, and if they would succeed in saving that unnamed being.

He wanted to finish this story.

He wanted...

Fire pierced the darkness and struck him like a lightning bolt, ripping him from the abyss and back to the surface in a single, sharp jerk.

Water bled from his damaged lungs while he strained to heave like he wanted to, eyes shot open but unseeing as life poured into him and _burned_ the weakness from his core.

Around him, the inferno spun, an ocean of blue without definable ends and he, an infinitely small being in comparison.

But, something massive broke the uniformity, a shadow lurking on the edges. It slipped beyond the sky with a flick of its form as if it tested for cracks in the barrier like some great behemoth of a creature- like the human stories of the Nidhoggr eating at the world tree

A scent of otherworldly fire reached him, soothing, despite the danger those flames could bring. Then, as if drawn by the scent- or even the source of it- another leviathan breached outside the flames.

The leviathan overtook the entire horizon, curling to block his view of the other being.

Like it _protected_ him.

He knew, suddenly, the strands of the web coming together, weaving everything into a finished picture but for one, final point in the center.

The last missing puzzle piece was-

"Looks like he's not doing too well, son," Father spoke in a mocking voice, not covering that he still looked for an opening to exploit.

Buoyed by Rin's strength, he wouldn't be offering one.

"Leave already, dammit," Rin's voice, an echoing growl through the flames from the circling leviathan, the one who'd pulled him free of the suffocating depths, whose scent it was filling his senses. "You're not getting him or Amaimon."

The one whose quest was to save _him_.

"Don't you know? Can't you feel it?" Father said, lashing out in testing strikes that Rin parried at every turn. "He dies. It's inevitable. You're going to _fail_."

Ice slid along his veins, constricted his throat as he tried to work out whether Father meant his attempts to possess his vessel would result in his death or something more.

And Rin...

"No, it's not. _He's_ not. And we're _not_ going to fail."

Power flooded his prison on the wave of Rin's snarl, roaring out over the expanse with his determination that he would _live_.

"He's not gonna die because I'm going to save him."

Those protective flames spilled from Rin, forcing a cry from Father when they finally hit and filling every corner of his prison.

"Then we're all going back to Assiah and he's going to go back to playing his games and eating his cheap instant noodles and messing around in my life like he always does."

He could feel that fire, the core of what Rin was, wanted to reach out, to let him know.

It caressed along his face and he just noticed the chill where it had settled because the simple touch burned like a brand. He latched onto it anyway, straining for even one more second of contact that let him know he was alive.

Flutters of Rin's flames to him, a comforting warmth, now that they'd chased the frost from his skin and the ache from his bones, allowed him to steady his mind.

Rin knew him, knew he enjoyed games of any kind, something that, once said, he also knew to be true. He knew what foods he liked, had been someone he spent time with because he would have enjoyed poking around in his life, and Rin still fought to save him when he had seen all others in previous scenes relegate him to death.

With such certainty in Rin's voice, in the way that he surged his power against Father's, he ripped the last of the weakness from his mind.

"He's going to _live_."

Roaring shook the walls of his prison, pounded at his ribs where he could have been calling out right alongside Rin as he shoved the invaders from inside.

"Now _get out of his__** head!**_"

Get out. _Get out!_

Blood rushed in a drowning beat with his pulse, blue flame sucked out like it had been drawn into the vacuum of space.

For the next few moments he could only lay, panting and dazed, near blind, once the brilliant light of Rin's core vanished.

Water burned at his superheated skin, the first real sensation he'd felt since he'd awoken besides exhaustion, and he savored the sting even as his mind began to shut down.

"We did it!" Rin's brilliant cheer cracked his eyes open just in time to see Amaimon pulled into a tight hug that put such complete bafflement onto him that humor curled a fist in his chest. How sweet. The tables had turned, it seemed. Wry laughter tried to escape at the irony of Amaimon being caught flat-footed by Rin's expression of human joy.

"Hah!" He settled into the haze dragging him under, Rin and Amaimon more faint outlines that he watched through slit lids. "That bastard got booted so hard he's going to be feeling it for weeks!"

"Amaimon," only the glow of their eyes made it through, "he's alive in there, he's still fighting."

He drifted on Rin's sigh of happiness, the sound carrying him, along with the knowledge that, when Rin spoke, it was about _him_, and he wanted to respond, to tell him he _was_ still fighting.

And he wanted to touch that fire again.

"I felt -. He reached out to me!" He could no longer see their outlines, but at this point he almost didn't need to, to imagine the way Amaimon would be looking at Rin.

And he'd heard-

"Er, Amaimon?" Yes, he could see it now, the wheels turning behind Amaimon's eyes as he tried to process Rin's humanity. "Ah, sorry about that, the hug. I kinda got carried away. Are you okay? Is he okay?"

"Yes," Amaimon said, finally recovering from the natural phenomena that was Rin, "- and I are okay."

He faded away on the sound of Amaimon's laugh, knowing he'd been saying _his_ name, that Rin had said his name, though he couldn't hear it yet.

And awoke to the sound of stone cracking.

Blinking didn't help to clear the wavering tiredness from his eyes where they rested. Heavy weights seemed to drag his lids down. How long had he been asleep for? How much time had passed since Rin and Amaimon had fought off Father?

The questions and need to answer them forced his eyes open, focusing until the first scrawls impressed themselves on the sky.

Amaimon, shivering and not appearing in any capacity to control the involuntary movements.

Rin could see it too, when his outline formed next, a frown painting his features.

"Hey, are you- you gotta be cold, right?" Worry, poorly hidden, joined the frown on Rin, and he wondered how Amaimon would take such obvious concern for a weakness.

Would he cover it up or-?

But a shallow nod in response to Rin's question showed that particular barrier had fallen. It spoke of trust.

"It's ok," Rin said as he took a seat next to Amaimon, close, but not touching, "I can just use my flames, right?"

Silence but for another nod and the sky lit with Rin's flames burning in a steady aura around their bodies.

As Amaimon untensed from the tight huddled he'd been in to conserve heat, he wondered where _he_ was.

Was he with them now?

The thought consumed him as Amaimon summoned food for he and Rin, again, neither speaking so that only the sounds of them eating and Rin's flames reached his ears.

Where was he, in what form? What did he even look like? The question hit him in its suddenness, realizing he'd spent so long wanting his name, he'd never stopped to consider his appearance.

Did they have him beside them, or someplace else? He tried to picture, given what he knew about his two voices now, where his vessel would have been kept.

"Amaimon," Rin said, finished eating, though not finished with whatever it was that bothered him, "I'm sorry, for what I did when you broke the sword."

Ah. Yes. That violent awakening seemed so long ago, with so many revelations in between. Rin hadn't put it aside so easily yet, by the clear guilt sending words shuddering from his lips. "I just- I don't know why I did that, but _I'm sorry_."

Amaimon reaching to flick his claw to Rin's forehead had an internal grumble of approval running in his head. It was ridiculous to be upset about something like that.

"Wha-" Amaimon cut Rin's startled gasp off with his next words.

"Don't be dumb," he said, his exasperation coming through as he dealt with Rin, "you were just reborn after nearly dying and you stopped yourself despite the instincts in your body."

At least that calmed some of Rin's guilt before they lapsed into silence again. But he didn't think Rin was through with everything he wanted to say to Amaimon, waiting for what might be revealed in their conversation.

"I still don't understand, what did he want from us, from me?" There it was, the other part of what bothered Rin. That it also happened to be information _he_ needed was the metaphorical cherry on top.

"Father," he latched onto Amaimon's careful words, "is very young."

Young?

"He's only in his first century after gaining an ego."

Fascinating. So their Father was a newly formed ego with all the immaturities of a human infant coupled with the power of creation. It was no wonder the showdown had gone the way it had. He understood now. The question was, would Rin?

"When he formed, - and - were already embroiled in their conflict." Another hint into some divide. One was most likely the blinding being, the other, a mystery, still. And Rin, caught in the middle.

"Father didn't have the same freedom to experience existence in the way that we did." Interesting to see that Amaimon had seemed to have spent some time considering this, enough to explain it to Rin so that he also understood.

"It sounds," Rin said, looking contemplative and not enjoying the conclusion he'd arrived at, by the grimace on his face, "it sounds like me, kinda."

He found himself drawn further into the scene.

"I found out in one night that there was this whole other world in a war I never knew existed, but suddenly I'm a part of it and there's no going back." How Rin had gone undiscovered so long was another mystery he didn't know if he would get an answer to, but he would have to think about the possible avenues such a path suggested later.

"Yes, you understand," Amaimon nodded, pleased with Rin's deduction and moving on.

"What Father wants," his expression shifted to something more somber, staring down with a new distance in his eyes, "doesn't really matter, in the end."

"- and - will have their way. Father is just another piece in their game."

Rin's hitched breath and shock matched the traces of his own that faded with the interweaving threads, "that's crazy, and he doesn't care?"

Not so, not if what he suspected was the case.

A deeper scowl appeared on Amaimon as he explained, and, now that he saw it, his instincts perked up at the odd displays of emotion. There was a part of this particular conversation that was making Amaimon volatile. Did Rin realize it yet? He put the curiosity about Amaimon's mood aside, though he kept a cautious eye on it because he didn't think it would vanish on its own.

"Father is too young to worry about the future yet. Everything in his world is what's immediate, the present, what he wants now, not what he'll want thousands of years from now."

It made sense. A being that new would never be able to plan beyond the newest impulse or current obsession. Father was easily manipulatable by the two other more experienced beings, for all the power he possessed.

"Like a kid," Rin said, on the cusp of full understanding, something that would only be helpful to his surviving the dangerous reality he'd found himself in. "Okay."

"It's not what he wants, but what _they_ want, right?" Yes, he'd reached the crux of the matter. But Rin didn't look finished.

"Yes." Amaimon spoke the word harder than Rin's answer should have necessitated. What could possibly be the source of that buried anger? He itched to dig until he'd clawed it free.

"And," Rin said, the hesitation in his voice and movements implying he'd also sensed Amaimon's strange mood but still chose to continue, "what do you want?"

He hadn't thought to ask such a question, assuming Amaimon's wants to be the same as the other voices they'd come across, or, because of his demonic mindset, to be taken in by his current fixation on Rin and uncaring beyond that.

Growling from deep in Amaimon's chest and the flickers of his power shining through his eyes betrayed the immanent explosion.

"I don't want to be a _pawn_," a snarl warped Amaimon's features and gold flashed in a warning that had come too late for Rin. There would be no backtracking, Rin would have to ride out the storm of Amaimon's rage.

And, once again, he understood Amaimon. The thought of being a pawn in anyone's game, of being at a greater power's mercy, rankled at his nerves and made his own snarl fight behind his lips.

"I will not be another player in their war!" the shout from Amaimon startled Rin, freezing him in place with indecision.

"He-"Amaimon glared sulphurous venom, though it didn't seem to be towards Rin, a fact he grabbed at, even if he didn't quite know why yet, "-and - won't rest until we're all killing each other for their game, until they're the only two left and there's no one to challenge them."

"You're still helping him."

Amaimon stopped, stunned right along with him at Rin's sudden statement. Still helping him? There was only one he was aware Amaimon currently fought for alongside Rin.

"Why did you decide to help me, really, Amaimon?" He watched, a feeble helplessness invading his mind as he held the threads of their implications together.

Amaimon flinched back from Rin, the wind of his storm blown out with those two sentences and looking just as shell-shocked as he felt.

Would he answer? He _needed_ an answer, needed to bind the last few threads he hadn't even known were connected but, now that he had them, seemed so obvious.

"Because you're honest," Amaimon began, slowly, to Rin's short gasp and his own hunger for answers. "You wanted to save - without any ulterior motive."

Of course, he should have expected it the moment Amaimon had mentioned a conflict between two beings that even Father was a chess piece of.

There were precisely three that were stronger than him, something he'd learned in his memories of his other half. And, once Abduxuel had died, only Father and one other remained. If Father was too new to act as anything but a pawn, then logic dictated the other being Amaimon refused to yield to was...

"None of the others would be able to say that," Amaimon said, anger vanished to leave him looking like a home hollowed out after a hurricane. "No one on Assiah or Gehenna could say that."

"Except...you?" Rin, still digging to the source with Amaimon's defenses gone.

Silence persisted, drawn taut across the small distance.

"No. No, just you." Amaimon said in concession, bowing to Rin's steadfast gaze.

"So you," still, Rin wouldn't let up, a dog with a bone and each time he bit down, more of Amaimon crumbled, "you're helping - because I decided to help him, but not because I'm on his side?"

That widened his eyes, pupils flicking to see how Amaimon would respond to the statement. Incredible, to see such astuteness from Rin, seeing him weave threads of his own that Amaimon hadn't anticipated- that he hadn't anticipated- cast yet another new light to the phenomena that was Rin.

"You weren't choosing a side," Amaimon said, shoulders slumping as he turned back to face Rin with a blank expression like he hid a turbulence underneath. "You weren't playing his or -'s game."

"You chose your own side." Everything was coming to a head with each new piece Rin pulled from Amaimon, an avalanche he didn't think Amaimon could stop at this point.

"And, it's why I chose to side with you." It didn't look like Amaimon wanted to stop himself, stop the words pouring like a stream from his mouth.

Incredible.

"What do you-" Rin said, trying to slow the inevitable conclusion of Amaimon's words and the responsibility they would chain him with.

"In this war, I'm going to fight on your side, whichever path you take."

The chain locked in place, a shackle around Rin's neck to weigh him with the weight of not just his own life, but Amaimon's, and his. What would he do with that added weight?

"Amaimon you- I wouldn't ever ask you to do that, you don't need to." Rin's attempts to make the chains vanish made amusement bubble in his lungs, a sigh at the panic he could see gripping Rin blowing out in a long exhale from his nose. Cute, it was cute how Rin thought something like Amaimon's decision could be taken back once given.

"That's why. You offer freedom." And equally as cute was Amaimon's decision to aid Rin in the war between gods based on something like freedom. Still...

He wanted to shake his two voices all over again, watching the way Amaimon began to shiver the longer Rin didn't answer his offer of allegiance.

Rin's panic subsided while Amaimon's grew. Then, as if in slow-motion, Rin leaned the last small distance to Amaimon to give his answer in the form of a hug. It was utterly human of him, but, with the two surrounded by the otherworldly Gehenna flame that made up Rin's core, he couldn't find it in him to think it with the same trivialization he would have otherwise.

Amaimon's hiss of shock where he'd been trapped in Rin's arms and his blown pupils showed he'd been just as thrown, despite all the revelations he'd dropped on Rin that had led to his current situation.

"What are you doing?" Amaimon snapped out even as he made no move to disengage. The irony of it all just deepened his amusement, further still when he saw the flush rise to Rin's cheeks. He could practically hear his pulse racing at his own nerve.

"Sorry, you looked like you needed it." Rin said, only making him close his eyes. After so long viewing his voices, he shouldn't be surprised at their tiring dance. And yet, every time, their two steps forward, one step back managed to get his hopes up.

"Needed?" Yes, he could imagine the confusion bleeding through Amaimon now.

"I'm not going to fail you- or him." At Rin's declaration his eyes jolted open, just in time to catch Rin scenting Amaimon out and Amaimon short-circuiting in his embrace. "If I have to go through everyone in Gehenna and Assiah, if I have to fight - and Satan and the Order to do it, I will."

Oh.

The amusement dropped away to be replaced by an emotion he didn't understand but which he thought Amaimon might share, if his muffled sound into Rin's shoulder meant anything. His heart thudded once to his ribs, mind brought back to the words of Rin's own promise to him, that he would live.

And that Rin would see it happen, would _make_ it happen, even if the entirety of existence seemed to be set against their success.

"Hey," Rin just kept on, taking his humanity and his promises and letting them show through a soft smile when he pulled away from Amaimon, "you should sleep first, I've still got too much energy right now but I'll be good to try by the time you wake up, I think."

He might have also been unable to give much more than the short nod Amaimon managed in the wake of the quiet storm Rin had unleashed. He might also have made the executive decision to flee by shapeshifting the way Amaimon did in the following instance, the cloud of smoke covering what his minor form would be.

A green hamster already pawed at Rin's wrist for attention as the smoke dissipated.

"You can use less of your flames if I stay in this form," Amaimon said, scurrying up to tuck himself into the crook of Rin's throat. It was an excellent excuse to hide curled up directly on Rin. Though he couldn't tell if he was proud of Amaimon for taking the opportunity, or disappointed he couldn't seem to manage it in his normal vessel.

Something to think about later, when he awoke next.

"I didn't know you could transform like -." His eyes slid to bare slits as Rin stroked a soft touch to Amaimon. He found himself wishing he could feel the burning heat again. His body had returned to that lukewarm nothingness without Rin's flames.

"We all can," Amaimon said and he barely heard it, eyes drifting closed.

The scent of otherworldly flames had joined that of the petrichor, Rin's and Amaimon's mingled in his prison.

Soft purrs followed him down into sleep.

* * *

End Notes:

I promise, no more cliffhangers until at least...next chapter whoops!

And I hope this was long enough to make up for the month it took to write lmao

(It came out to 69 pages in the doc ayyyyyy XD)

Also I thought I'd give some shout outs to the reviewers who have left guest comments here on ffnet, thanks for reading and enjoying and letting me know you liked the fic so far :D


	9. Final Light

**Summary:**

This is it. Rin and Amaimon have fought through Gehenna, Satan's armies, and Satan himself to make it to Lucifer's doorway. But are they prepared for his answer?

**Notes:**

I've been waiting to write this chapter since I dreamed this whole fic up last year February 2019 lol It started out as a wild trip through a lab with Rin discovering Mephisto cursed into a bonsai/rose thing about to be picked apart by researchers, (which somehow translated to Sleeping Beauty Fairytale au lol) and ended with Rin on a quest to save him from the curse. Then I woke up and had to write it lmao

It got a lot more complicated than I thought tho like damn . I need some nice simple fics to work on after this wraps up.

WOW sorry for how long this one took to get out, guys :O It was like pulling teeth. I was dragging the chapter into an alley to kick each sentence out of it and only getting like 1-2 pages a day lmao Hopefully next chapter is easier bc this one straight murdered me in my own home T.T

But on the bright side, only one more chapter to go~

**Song(s) of the chapter:**

Empty Crown by Yas

* * *

Rin woke up, and he wasn't tired.

When he cracked his eyes open, he could see a thin ray of light shining through the hole Amaimon had left in the entrance to the den.

In his lap, steady breaths still came from Mephisto's mouth, and at his side, Amaimon leant against him, a solid presence.

He flicked his tail where it had been draped in loose coils over the three of them, the long fur at the end mussed from the run up the mountain peaks to reach their rest spot. Rin released a slow exhale, parting his shirt so he could put his tail away and readying himself for what lay ahead.

"This is it, right Amaimon?" He said, turning to glance at the gold eyes watching from a blank face.

Amaimon nodded, and, this close, Rin noticed what looked like lines wrinkling the always present bruises that ringed his eyes. He furrowed his brows to see what he'd call signs of exhaustion if he were talking about a human.

"Alright," Rin didn't push it, something about the heavy atmosphere preventing the words from forming, "let's go, then."

They stood, Amaimon snapping to put Mephisto's cloak back on and bring him into his arms. Another gesture and the entrance widened, letting the mountain air buffet them in the enclosed space.

Still nothing to suggest he was feeling more than a cool breeze besides the winds whipping his hair to sting his skin and the tension biting at Amaimon's features from what must be bone-aching chill.

The faster they got out of there and reached Lucifer, the faster he could get Amaimon somewhere warm.

A nod to show he was ready, and they launched into the air, beginning the final ascent to Lucifer.

Flurries of snow swept along with the wind, more ice than anything, and Rin squinted to ward off the shards that made it to his eyes.

They'd risen above the clouds, leaving the horizon clear of everything but the near blinding energy streams glinting off the frozen layer of snow they darted over.

Far in the distance, Rin spotted one peak that towered above the rest, a gleaming beacon he knew was their destination.

This was it, the culmination of their journey. Nothing chased them, the threats that had seemed so huge at the start of it all had been dealt with. Making it through Iblis' territory, surviving the breaking of his sword, facing the hordes of Satan's army, facing Satan himself, to come out the victors of those confrontations. Now, with a clear shot straight towards Lucifer, Rin didn't know how to feel.

An urge itched at his mind, and Rin realized he'd grown used to having Mephisto in his arms as something to fidget with on the hours they ran for, having to make do with chewing at his lips as a distraction from the silence. Which, he snorted at the irony, would be pretty funny to explain to Mephisto when they fixed him, he knew.

Amaimon glanced at him, the movement catching his attention on his peripherals. Rin shook his head, although, another thought occurred to him, something he'd noticed during the fight with Satan.

"Hey," he called over the wind, "I noticed something, about Mephisto, when I was in his head."

Grunting, Rin hit the next bit of black rock jutting from the snow before taking off again, getting a raised brow from Amaimon to continue.

"When I saw him in there," Rin said, trying to find the words to describe the surreal experience, "it was just this little spark- like a tiny flame, you know?"

His lips twisted, not sure that was quite what he wanted to say but hurrying on and hoping Amaimon understood him, "he just looked so small, under that curse that's stuck on him."

"So, like," Rin finally turned to see what Amaimon made of his question, "is that because the curse is draining him, or something?"

"Hah!" Sharp laughter and Amaimon gasping, his claws clutched tight to Mephisto with eyes wide in startled humor, sent Rin stumbling back over his words to find what, actually, was causing Amaimon to lose it.

Shoulders trembling from the unrestrained mirth in Amaimon had Rin releasing an equally as amused sigh. "Ok, what did I say this time?"

"Samael-" Amaimon snickered again, forehead pressing to Mephisto's side where he held him, "-Samael isn't _small_."

Well, his vessel was ridiculously tall, at least, but the spark Rin had felt wasn't the larger than life figure Mephisto presented on the outside. Instead, it made him want to protect it, like a stray wind would blow it out if he wasn't watching carefully.

"You didn't go deep enough to see my core, so you have no comparison," Amaimon said, raising his face so he could grin at Rin like it was still the funniest thing he'd heard all week. Rin fought a pout, but curiosity about what Amaimon was getting at had him listening for what he'd reveal about he and Mephisto.

"Samael- his core, his aspect- is exponentially larger than _any_ of the Ba'al besides Lucifer," Amaimon waved his other hand in an absent gesture while Rin tried to grasp the concept.

"To any other being besides you, Father, and Lucifer, Samael's aspect would eclipse theirs," gold eyes narrowed at Rin and a sly smile spread over Amaimon's fangs, "Samael isn't small, you're just looking at one-eighth of yourself."

If Rin could bury himself in the mountain right then, he would dive head-first. He groaned, scrubbing at his face as he realized what Amaimon meant.

"Forget I asked," he grumbled. Though he added the information to the list of things he'd had no idea about himself, or demons and Gehenna in general, that he could now check off. Every day, he removed one more mildly horrifying thing and every day, more things were added.

Still, it felt strange to think of Mephisto or any of the kings as parts of himself, let alone smaller. They lived forever, could snap their fingers and make things happen as if by magic, teleport, use powers he couldn't begin to comprehend the extent of.

And he just had the ability to make big explosions- well, and dive into a demon's head like some kind of video game. He'd accepted more of himself and the things he could do, the instincts that had only strengthened since he'd drawn Kurikara, but life seemed determined to keep throwing new surprises his way.

Having Amaimon as a guide was maybe the biggest surprise, though one he had grown to appreciate most.

Ahead, and shaking him from his contemplation, Lucifer's palace had gained details. Now, rapidly covering the distance that would have made his body ache to look at before, Rin could pick out a wash of colors reflecting off what might have been ice, or massive sheets of glass.

Was this it? The palace grew closer, a few more peaks in between them and finding a cure for Mephisto.

A sudden, blinding light interrupted their line of sight, too far to run past, too close to avoid, and welling with an energy that screamed threat to Rin's senses.

Faster than they could react, the energy released.

Golden light, harsh and burning at his eyes until tears rose in them didn't stop that the attack reached its target.

Heart jolting in his chest, Rin could only watch.

_No._

_No!_

Light put dark spots in his vision, covering Amaimon's frozen expression just as he vanished within the attack, taking Mephisto with him from right under Rin's nose. In the next second, they'd blown back into the face of the mountain, the searing impact making snow hiss into steam around their trapped forms and sending hot fury through Rin.

Before the snarl could form on his lips, he sent that fury out in a wave of blue flame to light the horizon on fire and envelope the bird-shaped being that hadn't let up its attack.

It died, golden light swallowed in his fire and burning with a scream that echoed over the mountain tops. Rin didn't stop to listen, already dropping to the impact zone, frantic as he searched for signs of life.

"Amaimon!"

Rubble loosened and fell in the wind that hadn't let up, the rock that the attack had revealed to the air still steamed with the ice thrown against it while heatwaves rose to get eaten by the cold.

There!

Rin found the remains of an edge of the soot-stained maroon jacket trapped under Amaimon's unconscious body, Mephisto fallen to the side from his limp arms, just as damaged. But they still breathed. He could see charcoaled flesh and bone healing as if in slow motion on both of them, though Amaimon recovered a little faster, at least.

Before he could sink to his knees at the sheer relief that they'd survived, another presence formed on his senses.

This time, Rin loosed a roar on the damn bird-shaped thing that he now recognized as the same that had heralded Lucifer's arrival on the festival night that felt so long ago. He didn't wait for the echo of his rage to dissipate, lashing out with more fire in a preemptive strike as his face warped around bared fangs. Bitter satisfaction welled up inside when he ended the threat so that it never had time to even _think_ of attacking.

Then he turned to see Amaimon had woken, glassy eyes open to gold slivers while faint shudders went through him as his body healed. But awareness had come back to his eyes and Rin watched his hand twitch under the superheated rock that melded around what had just a few minutes ago been almost entirely melted to bone.

Amaimon's breath left in a pained hiss until his hand made it to Mephisto's arm and he stopped, chest heaving with a heavy sigh that sounded as relieved as Rin felt.

"You're ok? He's ok?" Rin managed to say, voice coming out in a tight growl because the fear and anger hadn't gone yet. He didn't think it would until the evidence of the damage left completely.

It was taking so long, too long, for Mephisto to recover. Rin's eyes shuttered, gaze falling to the hand near Amaimon's that had just begun to re-knit muscle and tendons. He lowered his own to press to the skin of Mephisto's palm, mood darkening further.

Because even when the skin fully covered the bones in Mephisto's hand, degradation stole the parts of it where it scrawled deep, ugly patterns up his wrist to replace the charcoaled skin. Mephisto might as well have not healed at all.

He clasped his fingers in a light squeeze around the hand in his as Amaimon rose in silence to stare at the rot Mephisto's clothes no longer hid after they'd burned away.

The shivers hadn't stopped in Amaimon, either, and he didn't think they were just from the cold. Rin opened his mouth as worry pushed the previous anger away to ask him again, because he didn't _look_ fine- hadn't answered whether they were okay.

Instead, Amaimon snapped, fixing the evidence of ruin and hauling himself to his feet before grabbing Mephisto again.

A curl of helplessness wound its way through Rin's gut at the blank expression almost daring him to speak. Something was wrong, and not just Mephisto's worsening state, but with Amaimon.

"It's nothing you can help with," Amaimon finally said as Rin sucked in a short breath, not expecting Amaimon to acknowledge his unspoken question. But he nodded anyway, though the worry didn't lessen, just curdled into a lead weight inside.

Seeing his nod, Amaimon set off, Rin leaping to follow him after burying the hesitation. They just had to make it to Lucifer.

Just make it to Lucifer. The words repeated in a mantra through Rin's thoughts, timed along with his heartbeat and the bounds they took on the unhindered path all the way to the final peak before Lucifer's.

They didn't stop, didn't stall to take it in. They'd had that momentary pause in the den, that calm before the storm. Now, all there was left to do was finish things.

One final leap straight up, and Rin stared into his own eyes refracted in a million shades back at him from the gleaming walls of Lucifer's palace. He didn't recognize himself, lost in the red slits his pupils had become where they pierced into him from the wavy surface.

Rin hadn't realized he'd almost permanently shifted his eyes into their more demonic form. As if drawn by gravity, his gaze went to the cruel black claws on his fingertips, then pulled up to the horns just peeking from beneath his white hair.

The brief glimpse he'd seen on Amaimon's phone screen hadn't really hit him with the full scope of the change. His tail tightened around his waist as if in subconscious desire to ground himself in reality.

But it wasn't until Amaimon shifted where he stood beside him that Rin broke from the strange spell he'd been under.

Purple bruises beneath gold eyes seemed magnified in the reflection.

Movement in the distance dragged Rin from the empty expression and whatever Amaimon was hiding. On the long way to the entrance of the palace, a small figure stepped over the hardened layers of snow that had settled into a white carpet.

"What the-?" Rin mumbled, taken aback by what or who approached them and frowning with the unexpected sight.

"Don't underestimate them, Rin," Amaimon's low words cut the confusion away, reminding Rin that, with a demon, appearances meant nothing.

Even if the appearance of the king nearing them was…

"Rin Okumura," a soft voice, almost hesitant, came from a face hidden beneath a childish full-body shark costume, something that could be seen on the streets of Assiah and not facing him on a mountain top in Gehenna.

"You made it, finally- or, not finally, um," black plastic eyes and a cheap row of fangs printed onto the upturned face of the costume still somehow conveyed the same anxiety he heard in the stuttered words.

A long breath- nervous, why did he sound nervous?

"Welcome, Rin Okumura."

With that baffling exchange, Rin blinked down. The bowed form and hands twitching from out of the ends of the fabric fins eventually prompted him to respond.

"Er, thanks," Rin said, before falling silent again, waiting.

When the silence continued, Rin realized what he was waiting for, and his confusion died.

The usual greeting, the one he'd heard from every new king he encountered, always went to Amaimon first, then him, but not this time.

This time, Amaimon had been ignored entirely.

With that realization, Rin began to glare, seeing the form beneath the costume stiffen.

"Take us to Lucifer," he growled out, in no mood to play with politics. He still needed to get Amaimon warm.

Rin didn't really remember which king this was supposed to be, despite knowing he'd heard it more than once from Amaimon. He didn't care.

Maybe he still had a long way to go to understanding demon politics and social cues, but he had gotten enough of Amaimon being dismissed by Satan to last the rest of his short patience.

And he still hadn't forgiven them for the attack they'd just undergone. The thought of it had his fangs extending behind his lips as the next breath he let out released steam into the air that billowed above them while he waited.

"Oh, yes, okay," the king jerked around, waving a fin to indicate they should follow, "he's inside, please follow me."

His silence only lasted a few steps. "We felt your awakening- ah, I guess you already knew that. Really, everyone felt it. We're glad you survived."

He hadn't known that, but only because it didn't really matter to him if everyone in Gehenna knew he was alive.

"Cool," Rin offered, letting the stifling quiet fall again.

At his side, Amaimon walked with steady precision. Shivers no longer shook his frame and his gaze had gone as frigid as the environment. He could have been a living doll, eyes empty, deadened.

It filled Rin with a low-burn anger to see the way Amaimon shut down, to see the mask he had to put up. The contrast between the Amaimon he'd grown to know and the one he saw now struck a discordant chord in his mind.

"You must be cold, Amaimon."

At the sudden words, Rin's eyes widened, though Amaimon just looked ahead as if he hadn't heard a thing. Those words hadn't come with the same nervous tone the others had, had instead sounded sly, like he knew Amaimon was cold and wanted to dig the knife deeper.

When Amaimon didn't say anything, he hummed, light, like he was disappointed.

"You didn't take so long to come home this time," cruelty seeped from the innocuous sentence, and Rin could almost see the smirk that would accompany it.

Amaimon gave a short grunt, though it was ignored, the other king continuing with his roundabout conversation that skirted whatever point he was trying to make.

"It must be hard on you, being here," he said with a blithe shrug. "I haven't seen your vessel like this in awhile."

Hard on him? Rin's heart skipped a beat, a suspicion growing that the last dig had nothing to do with Amaimon being susceptible to the cold.

"I guess it's ok," one of those beady plastic eyes turned towards Amaimon as if he scanned his body, "you're nowhere near as damaged as you were the last time you came here."

For a reason Rin couldn't understand, that comment made Amaimon stiffen, and though Rin hadn't thought it was possible, his gaze hardened further, cutting off from everything. He walked like he was alone amongst enemies, locking himself away from even Rin.

But, as if sensing blood drawn in the water, the other king latched onto that minute reaction.

"That's too bad, even with that perfect vessel you can't escape it," then, like the shark he dressed as, he went for the kill, "you just can't escape your _weakness_, even now."

"Egyn," Amaimon spoke, the name shivering from his lips and a glow rising in his eyes. An unsaid threat.

Rin didn't have that control, and his frayed patience reached the end. He let his flames build beneath his skin, one short thought away from forming and immediately catching their attention.

His irises had warped, twin flames that left writhing shadows he could see in his reflection staring back from the tall doors they'd arrived at.

Danger wreathed his words when he released them.

"Amaimon," Rin said with a soft growl, deadly glare turned down at Egyn and watching as it made him shudder in place. Good, he wanted to be perfectly clear. "Is not weak."

A hitched breath came from Egyn, though he couldn't seem to find his voice, frozen at the door.

"It's cold out here," his words hissed out, a serpent that had chosen its target, and his flames licked harder at the barrier to formation, "take us inside."

As if on command, the entrance slid open, a wash of warmer air brushing his cheeks while he stalked over the threshold.

Amaimon and Egyn followed in his wake, and the doors closed behind. Finally. The temperature difference must have been enough that Amaimon could stop fighting his body's reactions to it, recovering in incremental trembles.

Egyn didn't comment on them this time, and Rin crossed his arms, frostbitten expression still containing the blue fire waiting to be unleashed.

"This way," Egyn said, throat clicking with a dry swallow after his muted direction. He hurried to lead them up crystalline stairs.

The stairs would have been beautiful, in an otherworldly way, if Rin were able to appreciate them in any other scenario. They wound in a large spiral on the outside of the cylindrical space, taking them higher and higher towards the lone room at the top.

He couldn't see into the room, more of the crystal-like material blocking his view, but he could sense a blinding presence waiting there.

Lucifer.

And with Lucifer, answers.

Rin calmed himself, the scent of Mephisto and Amaimon grounding his determination into a solid steel core.

They stepped on the landing before Lucifer's doors. Rin gave a glance at Amaimon as the doors opened.

No more stalling. Rin was going to get some answers.

* * *

Amaimon followed after Rin, drawn by his current as if chasing the shifting blue of the piercing gaze he'd left him with.

He ignored the hackles trying to rise at being so near Egyn as the doors slid shut when they entered.

Hidden from view, he allowed himself a moment of weakness, fingers gripping tight in the folds of Samael's cloak before smoothing out. He released a silent breath, staring at the form standing in front of a window overlooking Gehenna.

Then he tucked the last of his weakness beneath his skin and waited.

"Thank you, Egyn," Lucifer said, voice reaching through the stale air of a room that had been untouched for centuries. He wore a simple robe over his emaciated body, not the uniform of the Illuminati. A sign in their favor.

Unbidden, Amaimon's mind flashed to the last time he'd been in Lucifer's domain. He shredded the memory before it had time to finish forming

"Rin Okumura," Lucifer turned his attention to Rin, bowing his head while Amaimon watched Rin's stance harden with the acknowledgement.

Leaf green eyes slid to meet him next and Amaimon froze at the expression he found himself pinned under.

Pressure, the urge to bare his throat, to flee- can't flee, it's too late, nowhere to run-!

His line of sight cut out as Rin shifted to stand more in front of him, taking the brunt of the paralyzing pressure away so he could breathe again. If the earlier attack hadn't been clear enough, that look he'd just been given, the lack of acknowledgement from Lucifer and Egyn, made it fully apparent. Only some were welcome here, and that number didn't include him.

But he had no choice except to proceed.

Egyn left for Lucifer's side and Amaimon to stand next to Rin, the heat from his core brushing against his skin to wash away more of the remaining cold. Rin looked to him, banking the fire in his irises, the ire Egyn had caused, to allow him the lead.

"Lucifer," Amaimon began, "Samael is cursed, it's the King Killer."

"Yes," Lucifer nodded, a brief flick of his gaze to where Amaimon held Samael, "Briar Rose Syndrome."

Nothing.

"You aren't surprised," Amaimon narrowed his eyes in suspicion, placing himself more in front of Rin despite knowing he couldn't offer much protection if Lucifer decided to attack. It wasn't just that Lucifer had been aware of the situation, not with what Astaroth would have told him and not after feeling Rin's awakening. There was something more he wasn't seeing.

Lucifer just cocked an expressionless face at him, "by now, everyone has heard of your quest, Amaimon."

Amaimon sucked in a sharp breath, eyes widening and darting around in search of any hint of Father's presence. Had Lucifer forgone the previous agreements with Samael after all? If he had, he'd walked them straight into a trap. He should have known better. Had known better. Rin was in danger. There would be no escaping if Lucifer meant for Father to make another attempt.

The chance had always existed and been the entire reason he'd avoided bringing Rin and Samael to Lucifer for as long as he could.

Why this particular farce? Why bother? He still didn't understand what Lucifer's angle was or why he'd sent the Seraphim to eliminate them- to weaken Rin? There were too many possibilities to narrow them down. He'd have to try anyway, their survival depended on it.

Iblis had known. She must have even as early as when they'd gone to her territory.

Astaroth hadn't just told Lucifer. Which meant Iblis had withheld the information from him, had probably reported it immediately after they'd been chased from the area by Awar and the summoned forces.

He shouldn't have expected any differently. She was on their Father's side, Lucifer's side. Another error in his strategy. Another way he had failed.

But there was something further than even that, another level to the charade he couldn't see yet. Something to do with Lucifer choosing not to present himself in the uniform of his side in the war, to come back to his territory in Gehenna instead of the one he held in Assiah.

"You must have guessed by now who the other among us was cursed and survived, Amaimon," Lucifer said, pulling him from his spiraling thoughts.

He had.

Iblis had known it too.

She'd _lied_.

But he couldn't do anything about it, had to proceed on the path he'd decided on in one moment in an alleyway in Assiah.

Amaimon shoved his mind back to the present danger instead of the future potential. He couldn't afford to get caught off guard any more than he had.

"We've been to see the others," the words came like the pattern of a story, one he knew Lucifer had already read, "Beelzebub, Astaroth, and Iblis all confirmed that one among us was cursed and survived where Abduxuel didn't. That you knew who it was."

He tilted his head, watching Lucifer as he released the final words of his opening, in statement, more than question, "do you know who it was?"

Eyelids shuttered, then closed, Lucifer drawing the moment out.

"Yes."

"Who was it, Lucifer?"

A breath, green eyes opened.

"It was me."

Confirmation. Behind him, Rin's heartbeat stuttered in his chest, betraying his surprise.

"Is there a cure?" The only thing that really mattered, in the end, regardless of whatever else Lucifer revealed. Was there a cure? Or had Lucifer's survival depended entirely on individual circumstance.

Egyn shifted but Amaimon didn't let it distract him, knowing it would all come down to Lucifer.

"In a way, yes," Lucifer said, gaze drifting to where he held Samael. Rin had gone tripwire-taut, nearly vibrating with the need for answers. But Amaimon heard the unspoken addendum and refused to let something so human as hope rise.

"The cure is hidden in the name given to the curse by the humans." Now Lucifer's roundabout was beginning to irk Amaimon, torn between his rising suspicion and irritation at the purposeful delay. "Briar Rose Syndrome."

A cool sweep of his eyes over Amaimon had him stilling again before Lucifer nodded to Rin. "It's from one of their tales about a human cursed to sleep."

He didn't know it, despite the books he'd borrowed from Samael over the years, but something about the turn of phrase Lucifer used pricked at his memory. A recent one. Hadn't Rin-?

Then Rin gasped beside him and alarm curled into existence when he turned to see understanding painting his features. Understanding and fear.

"There's no way- what does some rose have to do with Sleeping Beauty?" Rin snapped, fists clenched into tight balls, like something in Lucifer's words had angered him, scared him, by the rapid beating of his heart.

Lucifer hummed, head cocked in confusion. "So, you don't know the connection, then. I see. Please allow me to explain."

"Sure," Rin said with a guarded stare, though Amaimon didn't see him relaxing at the promise of an explanation and it had his own hackles raising with trepidation.

"The human is hidden away to avoid the curse placed on them and given the name Briar Rose by their watchers." Cursed to sleep. Cursed to sleep. The line kept running through Amaimon's thoughts.

It hit him and his eyes widened, immediate denial shaking him straight to the core, an earthquake he hadn't caused.

"The curse takes them anyway," Lucifer said, inevitability in every word, "and it takes true love's kiss to wake them."

Hissing erupted from Amaimon's mouth, scalding at his throat and covering the bitten off shocked sound from Rin.

"Demons don't love," Amaimon barely kept his fangs behind his lips, fighting the urge to bare them with his snarl, "don't _lie_ to us."

They didn't, he'd been in existence long enough, seen enough, to know that even the humans- even _Rin-_ couldn't definitively pin a definition on the concept. It was less real than they were!

"You," Rin spoke up with a dawning understanding in his voice that sent another fissure through Amaimon, jerking his head to see Rin staring at Lucifer, "you fell in love?"

Impossible! Rage began to swell in Amaimon, furious that Lucifer would use such a lie when they didn't have time, _Samael_ didn't have time. And Rin was too human to realize something like love couldn't save Samael.

"I was." The simple answer from Lucifer had Amaimon's teeth grinding together until they ached as badly as if he was still out in the frozen environment of his territory.

"Was?" Rin's question came again where Amaimon couldn't seem to make himself speak, knowing if he did his rage would overtake him and end whatever chances they had at getting the truth from Lucifer.

It lashed at his insides until his body shivered, hands threatening to grip too hard where he held Samael. The possibility of damaging him beyond what the dregs of his failing healing could recover from shackled his temper, but he couldn't _think straight._

"Long ago, before Father, before my current conflict with Samael," Amaimon heard Lucifer over the rush of his pulse, heard him, but couldn't understand, "there was a human."

_Liar, he's lying!_

"But you want to kill humans, destroy Assiah," Rin said, working it out and not allowing himself to be pulled in by Lucifer's story. The logic gave Amaimon a small line in the sea of his tumultuous emotions, one he grasped at blindly. "That's what you said when you took Izumo, so why?"

"If you loved a human, why would you try to kill them?" This time Rin's question came as a shout, his hesitation falling with the realization.

Rin's demand garnered a slow blink from Lucifer, pupils flicking up as if in memory, like a human would, as if he had any need to mimic their useless mannerisms at this stage, in the heart of his territory and only they as witnesses.

"The one who saved me wanted to live a human lifespan, no matter how many ways to immortality I tried to provide," Lucifer said in a murmur, the perfect picture of regret that made acid eat at Amaimon's control, burning at the tether holding him afloat. "And, when they died, I knew the truth of things."

"What truth?" Rin growled, finally seeing what Amaimon did, that Lucifer would spin reality any way he chose to fit his delusions, he always had.

"This universe we exist in is one of inequality," Lucifer's hands rose, robe falling over his skeletal form with his movements. Amaimon recognized this speech, the one Lucifer gave iterations of ever since he'd decided if he couldn't have a body that worked for him, then no one should

"Why should there be such a vast difference between humans and demons?" A glimpse of the fanaticism always lurking within Lucifer rose in eyes that no longer focused on them at all, too caught up in his speech. "When humans live as mayflies yet have the power to conceptualize demons, and then leave us to suffer in our formed egos and failing bodies, is that fair?"

"My love taught me that." He quieted, head bowing so his hair shadowed his sunken face, "I suffered centuries more before I had my revelation."

Horror stole over Rin, as if he'd just understood the depths of Lucifer's madness. The stormwaters in Amaimon's mind surged, hating the charade, the useless aggrandizing that Lucifer insisted on. His claws itched to shred something, body a livewire where he stood rooted to the spot.

"It would be better to bring everything back to non-existence than there be a world full of such suffering," Lucifer's gaze pierced into Rin when he spoke again, voice ringing through the empty chamber with utter conviction. "If even love can't change the laws of the universe, then I will make it one where no one has to feel that pain of loss at all."

At his conclusion, Rin started shaking his head, disbelief in his parted lips that he licked once on a rasp before forcing himself to speak, "you want to destroy the world because you lost someone?"

Didn't Rin know? Lucifer couldn't be swayed from his decision, had only been delayed by Samael with his clone research offering an easing of his eternal suffering. And after Father arrived, even that lost any effect.

"Fine, that doesn't make any sense," Rin snapped out of his shock, back to glaring at Lucifer. He'd shot a glance at Amaimon, running over him and Samael as if assuring himself they were still there, and the sight set another line into the storm for Amaimon to grab. "Just because you're in pain doesn't give you the right to decide other people's lives."

Lucifer _always_ thought he knew better, that he alone walked the right path, like some sort of messiah for all of Gehenna and Assiah to follow. Nothing Rin said would change that.

A harsher shake of Rin's head, hair whipping over his horns and narrowed eyes. "Never mind, just tell me one thing, then, because I still don't understand."

The cure. They needed to know the real cure. Amaimon tried to unclench his jaw, couldn't remember having started, but he had to pull Rin from one of Lucifer's endless debates before they wasted any more _time_.

"Why did Abduxuel die?" He froze at Rin's question, heart beating out of rhythm and floundering. What did that have to do with anything?

"Amaimon said Mephisto had a claim with him, that they were the only two of you guys with a complete bond." The white noise was back, this time because of Rin, an avalanche taking him under while he stared, helpless to stop it.

"So why wouldn't true love's kiss work? Mephisto didn't just let him die, so why couldn't he save him?" Lucifer didn't look surprised by Rin's question, already opening his mouth to explain as if the two points were in _any_ way connected.

Amaimon's claws tore holes where he dug them through Samael's cloak. The urge to bolt hit him as he locked his legs in place to prevent the flight instinct from taking hold and ruling him like some weaker demon. Like a human.

In front of him, the sight of Egyn, the scents filling the room, the setting, all drove Amaimon back to that moment he'd discovered Abduxuel dead and erased.

"You're right," Lucifer said, and Amaimon couldn't breathe.

The pale robe shifted with Lucifer's movements, a slow drop of his shoulders like gravity held them down while deep shadows darkened his gaunt face where he bowed it forward.

"Samael tried to save him. And when he failed, he came to the conclusion that such a thing was a purely human invention and that he was incapable of it." Lucifer spoke as if he were a human confessing one of their fabricated sins. "He's resented me ever since."

In his arms, Samael stayed quiet to the charges Lucifer laid down, and Amaimon couldn't imagine what he would say in his defense had he been able to speak. Just that he would deny them, because Samael had always denied that he could _ever_ be so base as the worms he toyed with.

"How?" Rin's question sounded strained, the beginnings of frustration spilling in, but Amaimon didn't understand what he wanted. "Mephisto tried to save him, so how wasn't it enough? What kind of dumb curse was this?"

Claws rubbed to his robe as Lucifer seemed to search for an explanation that Rin would understand.

"When I left him in this room with Abduxuel that final day, he asked me the same thing."

* * *

"Why isn't it working?"

He ignored the shout, knowing it was the cries of a wounded, dying animal and not the search for true understanding.

"Tell me!" Shattering furniture and Samael's power welling up made a soft sigh leave his lips as Lucifer turned to face the rotted form he'd never seen Samael suffer with before. There was a poetic justice to it all, he decided.

"There's nothing to tell," Lucifer said to wild eyes and a warping snarl, seeing fangs grit until the enamel squeaked at the force.

Behind Samael was Abduxuel, more corpse than living where he'd been set in the bed and still only breathing because Samael wouldn't let him die.

Another chair lay broken on the floor, the most recent victim of Samael's fits. Lucifer tracked the heaving breaths before judging him to be capable of listening again.

"What you feel isn't love."

Green eyes glared beneath ragged bangs long stained with blood from the open wounds making patterns on Samael as he released another growl, "that's not an answer!"

Unfortunately, "that's the only answer there is."

Lucifer watched his answer do nothing to calm Samael, the rapid thud of his heart nearly covering the soft, even one coming from Abduxuel.

"There must be another way- maybe the humans," Samael's muttering devolved into half-planned rambling as he paced the floor. His tail lashed beneath his rumpled robe, everything about his appearance so far removed from the masks he put on for the world, performance stripped to reveal the desperate creature that always existed at his core.

"There isn't, Samael," Lucifer said, simply, not letting him hide from the base truth with his schemes and ploys. "You won't find any loopholes. There are no arguments or alternatives."

"There's always another path!" Samael roared out in the enclosed room. He'd bared his fangs, extended his claws, but they were the toothless thrashings of the trapped animal once more rearing its head.

When he saw he had Samael's attention again, Lucifer spoke, "not this time."

He closed his eyes on the further pacing, though he could still imagine the dark path Samael created under the torn flesh of his feet, having long given up on shoes. He'd given up on many of the things he used to blend in amongst the humans.

"The others have all left, Samael," he said when it didn't seem like Samael would stop on his own any time soon. "It's just you who hasn't let go yet."

Laughter, bitter and harsh, erupted from Samael as he jerked around to stalk towards him with a face that no longer resembled a human's at all. "As if you can speak. How many ways did you offer your _beloved_ to keep that worm by your side?"

A hollow insult. Samael knew exactly how he'd tried to keep the one who'd saved him by his side, how desperate he'd grown. But those were two separate things, something Samael couldn't see. Coughing interrupted him from responding, shaking through his body as he brought his hand to his mouth until the bout ended. In a few years, his newest vessel would again reach the point Abduxuel's had. So many times he'd repeated that vicious cycle...

Blood dripped from his palm when he lowered his arm.

"I've given you everything you need to save Abduxuel. All the tools are at your disposal," Lucifer said, though instant denial appeared on Samael's face. He continued, "if you can't save him then it's because the bond you have isn't love."

"Stop saying that as if it has any meaning," Samael hissed from rotted lips, "he's mine, that's the _only_ bond that matters."

And it would be Abduxuel's undoing. Lucifer could see that now. "Then why hasn't he woken, Samael? What will you do now that you've run out of time? You can't stall any longer without also killing yourself."

That was it, the tipping point. Samael loosed a scream that pierced his ears and sent them ringing, filling the air with his fury while more of Lucifer's furniture met its demise.

"He's mine!" Samael shrieked, flinging a hand out to destroy part of the inner wall. "He was a fool, he was illogical. He was mine!"

Green eyes seemed to plead with him behind the glow of power, the glitter of what he knew were tears staining the edges. They wouldn't help him or Abduxuel. They weren't enough.

"My twin aspect, my other half, mine!"

The room echoed with Samael's words before they faded, leaving nothing but silence and his panting breaths and Abduxuel's steady ones still accompanying them in the background. They'd come full circle and Lucifer couldn't see a reason to keep pushing at an immovable object.

Casting a long, final stare over at Abduxuel, Lucifer turned away.

"Where are you going?" Samael's question made him pause at the door, hand raised. He knew what sight would greet him if he looked. Samael, gaunt and stripped bare of every facade, grasping for a solution that he couldn't give. And Abduxuel, taking what would be his final breaths. Two halves of a broken whole.

"Give up," he said at last, hearing Samael's heart stutter and breath catch in his lungs. "If you haven't figured it out by now, haven't learned to love Abduxuel at this point, then you never will."

He left, shutting the door on the welling power and wretched cry from Samael that shattered whatever remained in his room.

Now, it was just a matter of time.

* * *

Amaimon faltered, adrift after the revelation he hadn't ever had an answer to before now. He'd never thought he'd get one with Samael's abject refusal to talk about that day. A small piece of him still screamed that Lucifer could have been lying, but Amaimon had been able to calm himself in the retelling and could think clearly now that the torrent of emotion had receded.

If Lucifer was lying, then Amaimon couldn't do anything but try to catch him in it and uncover the truth. If he wasn't lying, then…

He flicked his gaze at Rin and the bowed line of his back sent a curl of unease through him he wanted to scowl at. Had Rin reached the same conclusion he had? He couldn't tell without seeing his face, but his silence had Amaimon itching to move and do something, even if he didn't know what that was.

"What Samael felt for Abduxuel," Lucifer started, picking his words one at a time as if he were looking back on the memory still, "was the love one has for an object, a possession- or a piece of themselves."

A sharp inhale came from Rin, Lucifer lifting his head as if to see if he understood.

"You wouldn't say you loved your hand or your hair or any part of your body in the same way you would a loved one. This is what Samael couldn't understand."

It made sense. Amaimon's heart rate picked up, eyes widening. Of course, something like a body part shouldn't be coveted any more than a blade of grass or an equally as unimportant thing. Why wouldn't Samael know that Abduxuel was more than that? That his absence from existence was worth more than some physical object?

Without his knowing, fangs extended to cut into his mouth and tongue, shocking him from the spiral he'd entered. For some reason, the slight reaction made Egyn focus on him and a pressure welled in the room.

"So," Rin said, the word shuddering out on his exhale, "he tried, at least. For as long as he could."

"He did," Lucifer shrugged.

Amaimon found his voice, speaking around a mouth of iron and knowing they would see the red on his fangs, "you said he resented you."

The cut of Lucifer's gaze nearly stole his voice again but Amaimon felt the edges of the underlying truth he'd been sensing from the start and refused to be cowed. Not when this was their last chance before everything fell apart.

"That he believed himself incapable of it," Amaimon kept on, despite the lack of response and sudden frost that seemed to come from Egyn.

"But _you_ never said you believed he was incapable of it." There, a slight slivering of Lucifer's pupils despite his placid expression.

Rin turned a frown on him, though he kept a line of sight towards the threat in the room. "He said he told Mephisto to give up."

Even saying it made Rin shoot a glare back at a stoic Lucifer as if he were the reason Mephisto had been incapable of love.

It jogged something further in Amaimon.

"He said Samael would never learn to love _Abduxuel_," Amaimon said, tasting his conclusion as the wariness that had been creeping in since they'd been attacked by the seraphim grew to heightened levels, raising the hair on his neck in a human reaction. A fear reaction.

"Not that he didn't think Mephisto couldn't love at all," Rin finished for him, gaze fixed on Mephisto with an indefinable emotion Amaimon couldn't parse when he was utterly focused on Lucifer and the frost coating the edges of Egyn's costume.

"But why does that matter?" Rin asked, brows furrowing, though he picked up on Amaimon's building tension and his claws began flexing in defensiveness at his sides.

They had to get out of there, Rin was in danger. _Rin was in danger._

He couldn't move.

"Samael was cursed," fangs fully extended in Amaimon's mouth, "Abduxuel was cursed."

Quiet fell in the room, bore down on his crushing realization.

"Who did it?"

_Who did it?_ This whole time he'd never thought to uncover the culprit. Not when they could find the cure and be done with it.

"Who cursed them?"

His fault. He hadn't anticipated it- why hadn't he anticipated it? He'd never thought, even forgoing previous agreements that-

Everything tangled into a knot in his chest, writhing there with bitter poison that infected the rest of his body and drove a hot iron straight to his core until it shivered out with his panted breaths.

Stifling silence suffocated him the same way Egyn had, the same way Samael had, with twisting words and greater power to leave him reduced to confused floundering, betrayal, where he'd been trapped. Would it happen a third time?

"Who did it, _Lucifer?_" He hissed, voice cutting through the air and ending on a snarl when the demand finished leaving his mouth.

Rin startled away from him, something he was only peripherally aware of as the vicious urge to launch himself at Lucifer and tear the impassive expression off his face welled in his gut, acid corroding his sense of caution to thin tethers.

"Amaimon!" Rin reached out across the distance, shocking Amaimon from his spiral when his fingers gripped to his arm, grounding him with physical pain and the sense of flames curling against his body.

Gasping, Amaimon tore his gaze towards Rin, then jerked back, though he couldn't escape Rin's hold. Staring at him were warping pupils, the same Rin had worn after his awakening. But he knew that fury wasn't directed at him, not with the calming strokes of those flames running down his spine and the undercurrent of worry beneath the ire.

Somehow, he'd remained in control, hadn't slipped beneath the consuming fires even with the ones in his eyes and surrounding their bodies. It was enough. Amaimon stole his own control back to himself, despite how badly he wanted to give in. Seeing it, Rin squeezed his arm once and let him go, flames dying out, though the ones in his eyes remained.

"Well?" Rin growled, one step from baring fangs at Lucifer.

Lucifer scanned their faces, folding his arms across his chest until another soft cough had him raising a hand to his mouth. It came away with his blood, though he ignored it to keep appraising them.

Finally, just as Amaimon could feel his threadbare temper fray to the last strand, Lucifer nodded.

"Your guess is right. I cursed both Abduxuel and Samael."

Amaimon registered he'd begun to shake, faint shivers running through his body like a thousand fault lines had just fractured at once.

"Why?" Had he spoken? Amaimon watched the world through a layer of gauze, a haze he couldn't break. It didn't make sense. Why the pretense at a conflict with Samael, then? Why bother with their drawn-out war? Their differing ideologies? _Why?_

"Samael," Lucifer said, the name coming on an exhale that almost sounded weary, "forever considers himself above the rest of existence- despite his fascination with humans and their creations."

"And," he continued while Amaimon tried to understand where he was going, "he especially enjoys laughing at their fixation on the concept of love."

So what? Amaimon wanted to shout, feeling Samael like a weight in his arms that threatened to crush him alongside Lucifer's implications. The humans were worth the same as any other creature that existed on Assiah. They lived and died in the time it took him to blink, so why would their equally ephemeral concepts matter?

"I thought the same, once upon a time." That placid gaze fell to Samael, making Amaimon shift as if he could hide him from Lucifer like that would protect him in the slightest. A curl of disgust rose in him for the useless reaction.

But his movement caught Lucifer's notice anyway and his frown deepened on seeing it. "Until I met and was saved by my own beloved and I realized that Samael shouldn't go the rest of existence without reaching the same understanding."

"You," Rin interrupted, biting at his lips as he stared in shock, "wanted Mephisto to fall in love?"

Another nod, "yes. He mocked what he thought was a fabricated story, believing I had been taken in by the typical demonic obsession that we are all familiar with, and that my curse was a random aberration in what makes us up."

"That I couldn't possibly have felt what the humans term 'love' and he terms less real than their fairy tales," Lucifer murmured the last line of his admission, somber now, and once again looking like he'd gone deep into a memory.

"And," he shook his head, a slight motion that sent pale strands in front of his eyes, "I saw the way Samael had come so close on his own with Abduxuel. I didn't realize at the time that it was because he wanted to be whole- that he looked at Abduxuel as an extension of himself instead of an individual to love, and that was Abduxuel's downfall."

All this time, Amaimon had never suspected. His heart thudded at his ribs with the unravelling of a story he'd thought long closed and over with, a part of his past he'd given up trying to claw answers out from an impenetrable source. And Samael couldn't say a thing to defend himself, to explain himself in the face of Lucifer's revelations.

It left him off-kilter, faltering where he should be steady, as unbalanced as a human when he had to be strong because Rin and Samael depended on his being so.

"You can't just decide that for someone," Rin snapped out, somehow managing to stay afloat, buoyed by his rage instead of controlled by it. "So what if he didn't understand? That's not your call to make."

But Amaimon could tell Rin's argument made no difference to Lucifer. He'd come to his conclusion before Rin had even been born, this was just the culmination of a decision he'd made long ago.

Already, Lucifer shook his head again, the action bringing a halted growl from Rin and clenched fangs.

"It was to save him," Lucifer said, and it made the thorned noose in Amaimon's chest tighten further. "Abduxuel's death was an unfortunate result of a flaw in my plan."

"Save him- what?" Rin stuttered, lurching forward as true anger began to paint his words. Heat rose in waves, tugging Amaimon in their current as the last few centuries clicked into place.

Rin wasn't finished, blue flame curling at the back of his throat and licking at his teeth with his shouted accusation.

"You tried to kill Mephisto too! Your damn angels almost got him and Amaimon. How can you say you tried to save him?"

How could he? What purpose would it serve? Amaimon didn't understand. Everything twisted in his head, writhing snakes carrying their venom to leave him disorientated when they struck. What was the point? Even if Samael never had the same realization Lucifer had, he would have still been bonded to Abduxuel, they would have still existed together, closer than any of the other Ba'al.

But Lucifer always thought he knew best. Amaimon had told Rin this. So why was it taking so long to sink in? Why couldn't he breathe?

Pity shone in Lucifer's eyes when he looked at Rin, the human expression strangling Amaimon where he stood.

Then that gaze turned to Amaimon and the pity fell away like it had never existed, a cold like the one making up his territory seeping out and freezing Amaimon to his core. At Lucifer's side, more frost had spread over Egyn's costume, the aura there threatening to crush Amaimon while his instincts screamed that he needed to flee before they destroyed him, that this was a fight he wouldn't survive.

"The seraphim were supposed to destroy Amaimon and allow you and Samael through." Danger coated the soft words from Lucifer as he revealed another nail for the coffin. "_You_ should have been carrying Samael, not him."

Waves crashed in Amaimon's mind, a constant churning sea that Lucifer had thrown him into, and Samael the stone tied to his ankles.

Why?

"You were gonna kill Amaimon?" Rin said in a shallow gasp, horror stealing the strength from his voice.

He would, had tried to, had almost succeeded if Rin had been a few moments slower. Amaimon could see it now, the deliberate way Lucifer and Egyn had forewent using his name, the way they'd directed their full attention towards Rin.

"His host body would have been destroyed and he would have found another."

Yes, Amaimon would have lost his perfect vessel and been forced back to that maddening, _hated_ nothingness, but he would have survived. So what purpose was there for removing him from the picture? It wasn't as if he had any real ability or power to stop Lucifer or Father when they came for Rin, only try to delay the inevitable.

The only result would be Samael's quicker death. The only real loss.

Rin didn't seem to see it that way, snarl tearing from his throat and no longer shocked silent.

"You bastard!" His shout filled the room to ring in Amaimon's ears, raising his hackles with instincts telling him he was missing something vital. By the burning glare Rin wore, he hadn't missed it.

"You risked his life on some random bullshit idea that I might fall in love with him? What kind of brother are you?"

Everything stopped. Amaimon's breath stuttered from a frozen body, sounding like a whine that broke in his chest before it could emerge.

His gaze flicked to the faces in the room, searching for a lie in what Rin had said and finding none. Just-

Egyn snapped, the frost coating his clothes cracking free as he snarled at Amaimon.

"You ruined it, Amaimon!"

Ruined it? Ruined _what?_ Why wouldn't they just stop! He needed time to make sense of things in a world that suddenly didn't.

"It's your fault Samael's dead, all because you interfered!"

He wanted to ask how he'd interfered, why his actions were the cause of Samael's death when Lucifer had been the one to curse him in the first place. He couldn't make his vessel work to form the words.

Ice surrounded him, lashing at his skin from Egyn to rip the warmth Rin's flames had brought and replace it with an aching chill that buffeted him inside the vortex. Pain forced him to his knees, Egyn's power driving him down over Samael where he'd locked his arms, unable to move even if he'd wanted to.

Amaimon might have made a sound, but the vicious ice digging at his vessel distracted him, limbs weakening with sudden hypothermia that numbed everything.

Was Egyn targeting Samael too? Amaimon couldn't see, vision taken by the stinging shards and rendering him helpless to defend Samael against Egyn's merciless storm.

"Why couldn't you just let your vessel fail facing Father?" Egyn's question rang over the storm, "Everything would have been fine if you'd just given up when it started!"

"Back off!"

Power welled up and shoved Egyn's away, temperature shooting from bitter cold to a heat that burned sensation into his skin as he gasped. Amaimon panted, sight healing, though when he blinked it was to see a wall of shifting blue and he realized he'd been protected in the center of Rin's flames.

In the next moment, a palm, hotter than the fire spreading from it, came to rest on his neck and steadied him from the wavering he hadn't realized he'd been doing.

The touch grounded him, kept him from unravelling further, though his vessel ached and shivered out of his control. He'd reached a tipping point, sped up because of Egyn's attack. Amaimon ignored it with a lifetime's experience, ducking his head to scan Samael where he'd fallen from his usual hold over his shoulder to rest folded against his chest.

Degradation ate more of Samael away than before, spreading up his neck and making his cheeks gaunt, his skin paper thin, fragile. The rest of his body would be worse. Egyn had avoided damaging him, though, focusing his entire attack on Amaimon in a punishment he _still_ didn't know what he'd done to incite. It was only the curse, each moment sapping more life from Samael.

Rin's hand trembled where he dug his fingers into his shirt. When Amaimon glanced up at him, he saw the flame-warped pupils hadn't left, his face a mixture of fury and concern as he stared at Samael. Then that penetrating gaze slid to Amaimon and Rin pursed his lips, brought back to the present as he dissipated the flames in the next breath.

Ringing silence met the lack of elements ravaging the area, and without the fire obscuring things, Amaimon had a clear view to see Lucifer and Egyn pulling themselves from where they'd been held to the wall. A brief scan showed him Rin had only pushed them back, Lucifer's skin reddened by the heat but unharmed besides that.

"Amaimon is the _only_ reason I even made it here," Rin said at last, voice low, as Amaimon jerked in his hold, unable to stop the action.

Lucifer stood, pupils blown in his irises, most likely because of the inferno he'd been engulfed by as Rin continued in that same voice that made it impossible to argue, commanding complete attention from the room.

"_He's_ the only reason I'm not dead a million times over, that I wasn't executed by the Order, that I made it to Gehenna at all and was strong enough to fight through the damn place to get here."

"So," Rin exhaled a burst of flame through his nose, "maybe you should have thought of that when you decided to curse Mephisto and leave me to save him."

He listened, every one of his senses tuned to Rin and eyes widened, incapable of doing anything else. He might as well have been back in the gale-force storm. He felt like he was still there.

But Rin wasn't finished, the hand not on Amaimon slicing in front of him with his hard gesture and snarled words, "and why would you even think about using me like that anyway? I didn't even have a claim with him like Abduxuel!"

A taken aback expression had Lucifer blinking in a flutter of lashes before he regained his composure, frowning as he explained, "a claim isn't necessary, it only adds nuance to a bond."

Green eyes shuttered. "As for why you were chosen, there were a number of reasons, but I first considered it when you came to retrieve your classmate from my lab."

"What?" Rin said, mouth working soundlessly, "all the way back then?"

"Yes," Lucifer said with a nod, "Because of what Shima Renzo told me when I asked about you."

"Shima?" The name breathed out from Rin, shocking him from the warped irises back to the demonic, slit-pupiled ones Amaimon had grown familiar with.

None of it made anything clearer to Amaimon. He remembered the human spy Samael had decided to use, remembered asking him why he would keep someone who couldn't manage to accomplish any of the tasks he'd set to prove his worth. Now, it seemed to make even less sense because somehow that spy had directly influenced Lucifer into afflicting his curse on Samael.

Slow breaths from Samael's parted lips puffed at his neck and the rapidly fluttering pulse there he couldn't seem to settle. Rin's palm burned like a brand, the two sensations becoming the only things that felt real at this point.

"He told me your weakness was love," Lucifer's words snapped Amaimon back as he tried to untangle Lucifer's thought process. "And I realized what I had been missing from the equation the first time around."

"I realized," he said to Rin's blindsided expression, "that the missing piece was humanity, the catalyst that brings change to beings such as demons."

Demons didn't create, didn't change, didn't love. Amaimon knew that, _every_ demon knew that. It was the most cited reason Samael gave for why he detested Gehenna and loved Assiah.

And Lucifer believed that the human ability to change was great enough to work on demons.

Something tore at his lungs and Amaimon couldn't stop the cough that rattled through him until he was forced to bring his hand to keep the hot blood from escaping. A strange feeling welled up with the blood, like he had left his vessel, senses deadened and watching his actions as if he were the host and another controlling his movements.

And Rin's voice, telling him that Samael needed his dignity, echoed in the back of his mind, pressing him to make sure the red didn't fall to stain his clothes.

"Amaimon?" Rin said, sounding more real than the one in his head and returning to him a portion of reality as he looked up.

Concern shown from Rin's expression and Amaimon dropped his hand to reveal the trails of blood and the damage he couldn't hide anymore.

"I told you," Egyn's sneering voice interrupted him from explaining himself and earned a lip raised over a fang from Rin, "you just can't hide your weakness. Especially not here."

"I," Rin said through a mouth full of fangs and a dangerous growl towards Egyn, "am getting real tired of that shit. What are you talking about?"

It sent Egyn a step back, though only sullen silence met Rin's demand as Lucifer held his arm up across Egyn's line of sight, bowing his head as he spoke.

"My apologies again, Rin. Egyn is referring to the effect of my wards on Amaimon's vessel."

There it was. Amaimon let out a quiet breath, knowing Rin would remember his explanation in a moment. Another emotion he didn't understand dragged at his rotting lungs, sinking like a weight he couldn't free himself from at the thought of what he would see when he looked at Rin again.

"He said-" Rin cut himself off with a gasp, hand gripping reflexively on Amaimon, "anything weaker degrades in your territories, that they can't survive for long, but he's-"

Stricken features met Amaimon's gaze as he tilted his head up.

"He is a weaker king, already damaged after your path through Iblis' territory, the fight with Father, the attack by my kin, and now by Egyn" Lucifer said, matter-of-fact, because it _was_ a fact, one Amaimon couldn't escape any more than Samael could his curse, "and it's causing Samael to fade faster as well."

Rin jolted, turning his stare on Samael as if just noticing the new rot eating at his skin.

He'd suspected, voice steady when he finally spoke, "that's why you had the wards dropped when I came here last."

Lucifer's nod confirmed it and Amaimon forced control back on his vessel to stand, sliding his claws through fragile strands of hair as he tucked Samael's face into the crook of his neck.

For some reason, he still felt unbalanced. Rin shifted closer to his side, his presence a pillar that kept Amaimon from tottering off a ledge he couldn't seem to find his footing on.

The movement brought a frown to Lucifer.

"The error is mine," he said, closing his eyes, "I had thought this time I would succeed in my efforts but now I can see that isn't the case."

"Who cares if you didn't make him fall in love?" Rin hissed, nearly vibrating with his anger, "it's your curse, take the damn thing off him!"

Could he? But, no-

Already, Lucifer shook his head, "it's impossible, I'm afraid, at this point."

"Why?" Panic entered Rin's voice, an edge of futility to his anger.

"By now, it's hooked too deeply into his core," Lucifer said as Amaimon's claws flexed to Samael's body like he could tear the curse out by its roots. "Removing it will destroy him."

"Dammit!" Rin cursed, the word cracking off his tongue to drive a new fissure through Amaimon. He knew what the feeling was earlier, hadn't realized it was possible for a demon- for _him-_ to feel it at all.

Guilt.

Named, the emotion gained strength, slipping through the fracture in his mind that Rin had created. He didn't know what to do with it. He didn't know what to _do_.

He'd _failed_.

And now…

"There's nothing more I can tell you," Lucifer said while Rin snarled with denial, abject fury warping his features, but it was a thin veneer to cover that helplessness had begun to grow in its place.

What now? He wanted to ask, but the thought of asking Lucifer rankled him in a way he couldn't explain. His mind rebelled against the notion, hating that he was so weak and hating to rely on Lucifer at this stage.

"Then," Lucifer cocked his head, "will you be choosing a side, Amaimon? My offer still stands."

Before he could stop himself, a snarl tore out of his throat, raw and visceral with the fangs he bared at Lucifer for daring to suggest what he just had.

"I've sided with Rin," he hissed, the declaration hard with no room for misinterpretation about where he'd placed his loyalties.

"I see," Lucifer said after a long moment.

When he didn't speak further and Rin followed suit, Lucifer tucked his hands in his robe, coming to a decision.

"In a sense of fairness," he said as he returned to his typical apathy, gauze of humanity wrapped beneath him again, "I will give you three days."

"Three days for what?" Rin prompted lowly as Amaimon sunk his teeth down, the bright flash of pain joining the cold washing over his body at the realization.

"Three days to wrap up whatever you may need to before I come for you for Father," Lucifer said as if it were the simplest thing in the world, laying down the future without care that Amaimon couldn't breathe again and Rin looked stricken, gaze turned to him like he could do _anything_ to prevent Lucifer from doing exactly as he promised, "and of course, for Samael to die."

Three days. Three days, possibly less, and Samael would be gone. And Rin…

"I'll drop the wards so you can return to Assiah," Lucifer continued, glancing at where Amaimon still held Samael, "it's where he would prefer to be, in the end, even if he can't see it as he is."

_Useless_ platitudes, as if they would in any way make up for what he'd done, what he would do. A scream pressed at his aching lungs. He thought the rot had begun to consume him at the same rate it did Samael, choking him from the inside.

In his senses, the wards on Lucifer's territory fell with a slow grace, easing the strain on his vessel until he could heal the damage as if it had never been. Why did it still feel like he couldn't get air into his lungs? Like the acid bile from rotted organs still stung at his throat. Like he still drowned.

Samael didn't recover.

Whatever dregs of his healing had remained were truly gone after being under Lucifer's wards. He weighed nothing in Amaimon's arms, almost the same husk of a being Abduxuel had been at the end.

Just his face, frozen in time and still giving him the appearance that he slept, if not for the way the color in his hair had faded to a shadow of its usual vibrancy.

Amaimon raised his head from considering Samael to see Lucifer and Egyn waiting. He felt Rin shivering next to him, then snapped his fingers, taking them away from Gehenna, from the room Abduxuel had died in, and from the place they'd discovered they'd failed in.

When he opened his eyes next, it was to see the clearing he'd brought them to at the start of it all.

The sunlight that settled on his skin should have carried some warmth, but it never made it to the bone-deep chill under the surface.

Rin fell to his knees, a mirror to the reaction he'd had the first time. It wasn't caused by the shock of teleportation, not even between dimensions, as it had been before.

Faint trembles shook Rin's frame, and Amaimon could hear what sounded like hitched breaths.

He couldn't move. His indecision kept him stationary as he listened to the quiet gasps Rin released like it happened in another world. He could have been watching one of Samael's shows, looking in as an observer to the events taking place, unaffected by them and wondering why the characters reacted the way they did. Wondering why Samael enjoyed watching those reactions the way he did.

A wrenching sob broke him from his stasis, seeing Rin clutching his fingers deep into the soil as he hunched in a tight curl over his knees.

"I'm sorry!" Rin gasped, making Amaimon blink slowly. Everything felt slow.

His lips began to tug into a frown.

"I failed!" Failed? More of Amaimon's mind returned, something welling in his gut to hear the wretched words from Rin.

"How did you fail?" Amaimon said, voice coming as a murmur.

"I said I wouldn't fail you guys," Rin said in a cry, breaths louder and faster in the beginnings of hyperventilation, "I said I would save him!"

He had. Amaimon thought back to the cave where Rin had made his promise and all the other times he had said 'when' not 'if' they would save Samael.

Samael's faint heartbeat seemed magnified where he held him to his chest, each breath to Amaimon's skin felt like a timer clicking down to zero.

Without thinking about it, Amaimon sank to his knees beside Rin, arms unbending like his joints had been rusted closed by the years to set Samael on the grass. Strands of hair fell across his lips and Amaimon used the edge of his claws to tuck them back behind his ears.

As gentle as the motion was, several strands broke off anyway. Amaimon fought the urge to keep running his claws through the hair or risk even more damage.

Watery blue eyes peered up at him as Rin raised his head and Amaimon let his hand fall to his lap.

"It's not your failure," Amaimon said to that gaze while Rin froze, stunned like he'd been struck.

"It's mine."

Immediate denial tightened Rin's features and he could see him already gathering his will to argue, so he shook his head and made his correction, "you were right from the start, we should have gone directly to Lucifer. He was the key to everything and could have removed the curse before it was too late."

He'd played it too cautiously, been too concerned with the politics he hated and not about the results they needed. And now they'd paid for it because of his failure.

"Something tells me that wouldn't have worked, either," Rin said, a derisive snort and bitter anger forming, "that bastard would have pulled some stupid reason out for why he wouldn't take it off and we'd be just as stuck, we'd just know it sooner."

That was probably true. Amaimon nodded, a rueful smile raising a corner of his mouth that Rin had laid Lucifer bare so quickly after just two meetings.

The smile faded before it could form and Rin slumped, anger vanished, to stare at Samael.

Around them, insects hummed and a light breeze went through the clearing, so at odds with the defeat that hung over them in a heavy shroud. Rin's hand went to the sleeve of Samael's suit, almost like he used it as a security blanket or was trying to memorize the feel of it with each brush of his thumb to the folds.

"It's no use, isn't it," Rin mumbled, gaze fixed on Samael's face.

Amaimon let out a questioning sound.

"Loving him, it wouldn't make a difference, right?"

His heartbeat skipped, breath caught on Rin's words and eyes searching the face now turned to him as if Rin waited for a response.

"If he didn't love Abduxuel in a way that could break the curse," Rin's hands gripped into Samael's sleeve until his knuckles whitened at the force, "then what good would it do?"

"I don't," Amaimon fumbled with his answer, "I don't know."

Rin was right. What good _would_ it do if either of them loved Samael? Samael didn't love, they'd learned that with Abduxuel's fate.

"This is so stupid!" Rin's shout sent his pulse racing, jerking to see he'd clenched his eyes shut, teeth grit around a strained grimace and harshly panting after his outburst.

"I just- I hate this, I hate it!" The scent of salt hit his senses and Amaimon realized tears had begun to prickle at the corner of Rin's eyes, his voice choked like he held the worst of them back.

"I made a promise." That final whisper came with a whimper and Rin broke, falling as if his tendons had been cut to bury his face in Amaimon's chest. Wet heat made it through his clothes a moment later as Rin muffled his cries there.

Without his say, Amaimon found his hand pressed between Rin's shoulder blades, feeling the shuddering frame beneath the touch he let settle as soft as the one he'd just run over Samael. The other ended up below his ribs, gripping into the fabric.

It hurt, a wound without a physical source he ached to tear from inside. If he dug his claws in deep enough, hollowed himself out, he could replace the pain.

But Rin, collapsed to his body, stopped him from acting on that urge.

Egyn had been right, his weakness had led to where they were now. If he'd learned to cover it better, ignored it when it first reared its head and again, a century after he'd thought he'd buried it deep enough, then Samael might have survived and Rin wouldn't be crying into his chest.

Slowly, the action unfamiliar to him, Amaimon rubbed at Rin's back in a move he'd seen humans perform a million small ways in his existence. He ducked his face to Rin's hair, inhaling the otherworldly-fire scent there and realizing how comfortable he'd grown surrounded by it in such a short time.

"It's not your fault," he said in a tired sigh that had Rin's heart thudding under his palm with his renewed sobs.

Eyes shuttered by heavy weights dragged to half-mast considered Samael where he lay as Amaimon forced his weakness into the light. It was the least he could offer Rin after failing him so badly. The only thing left to give was his honesty, when Rin had been so forthright with his own.

"It was my weakness," Amaimon tapped a claw to Rin's spine when he felt him tense, knowing the argument he would try to make and feeling a wry humor attempt to curl up from the abyss he'd fallen into, "Egyn wasn't just talking about my place in Gehenna's hierarchy."

"You asked me," Amaimon spoke his admission, something he'd hidden to the best of his abilities, finding it easier when he didn't have to face Rin, "what my reason for helping Samael was, and why I helped you when no one else could say they didn't have ulterior motives."

Rin's tears had slowed, the ragged breaths deepening, and he pushed harder to Amaimon as if he were trying to meld them together.

"Because I had ulterior motives too," he said. Had them, and hated that he did.

"I didn't know when it first started, but Egyn saw through me," his voice sounded far away. The only thing that felt real at all was Rin, "and he dug at it until we fought and I left for Assiah."

An aberration, he'd thought, something wrong with him because he'd been a weaker king. And, like a shark to blood in the water, Egyn had sensed that weakness and struck before he'd even known what was happening. He said as much to Rin, wondering if he understood yet.

"Then I hid until Abduxuel's death called me back and by then I thought I'd covered it up," by that point Rin's cries had trailed off as he listened to Amaimon, fingers twitching in their grasp on his shirt as he raised his head to stare.

"It wasn't about owing Mephisto at all, was it, Amaimon," Rin said, gaze locked on his and voice thick with the after-effects of crying.

"You love him too."

Strange, to hear it out loud when he'd been denying it for so many years. Amaimon nodded anyway, unable to speak.

But, "Samael always said not even the humans knew what it was, that demons only knew destruction."

So he'd listened, tucked it all away until he'd almost convinced himself that the things he found growing in his mind were figments and that Egyn had been trying to toy with him that long-ago day. Then he'd found Rin carrying Samael and his efforts came to nothing.

"Wait," Rin breathed, pulling away from Amaimon and shaking him lightly, "don't you realize, Amaimon?"

Realize what? His brows furrowed, trying to see what had put a thin light of hope back in Rin.

"Lucifer was wrong about something," a grin formed on Rin, startling Amaimon, "being human has nothing to do with it!"

Nothing to do with what?

"You're not human, Amaimon. _He's_ not human," Rin said as if it was a fact under doubt that Amaimon was anything but a demon, "that means that it doesn't take a human for demons to love!"

Oh. Amaimon's eyes widened, jerking his head to look down at Samael as his pulse picked up in a flutter of uncertainty. But it faded, short-lived.

What difference did it make if Lucifer had been wrong about that particular piece? It wouldn't change Samael.

"If he couldn't love Abduxuel, then it doesn't really matter what we feel." Even saying it made that emotion he'd identified as guilt rear up for crushing the faint hope in Rin. A shadow fell over him, dimming what light had entered his eyes as he slumped against Amaimon with a shuddering sigh.

The clearing fell into silence again, heavy as they stared down at Samael.

"He's going to die, isn't he," Rin whispered, his words stabbing cruel knives into Amaimon one after another, "_I'm_ going to die."

Things were born and died every day in a constant cycle. He knew that, had watched death come to each living being countless times.

Gehenna flame burned within Rin's core, a comforting warmth that had become an essential piece Amaimon could no longer imagine going through existence without anymore. It would be a cold eternity when Lucifer inevitably won and ended it all.

He'd spent so many years of that eternity wondering what the point was.

Rin leaned down, red rimmed eyes focused on Samael from the scant inch between them as he spoke his name like an apology and closed the distance.

Amaimon found himself faced with Samael next as Rin pulled back, limp where he leaned on his hands with a faraway look and a deadened expression.

The point was Samael. The point was Rin.

"Samael," the name shivered out, barely spoken, before trailing off. What could he even say? With nothing left, Amaimon kissed parted lips, lingering in what felt like a goodbye.

And he was going to lose them both.

* * *

His eyes slid open on his waking.

Above him were the forms of his two voices etched in the horizon as if they'd been waiting for him this time.

He contemplated the way they leaned against each other, Rin's tail draped over their laps and flicking in his sleep. Amaimon's gold eyes watched each small movement as if it were the most interesting thing in the world, distracting himself with the sight instead of the books and candy he'd used in previous scenes.

A snort huffed out in a slightly harder breath from his nose as he realized he would have to correct his terminology. They weren't scenes he had been viewing since he'd woken in his prison, but actual events happening in real time that very much included him, even if he couldn't participate.

Where was his body in the image above? The question gnawed at his thoughts while he searched to see if there were some hint to his location. But the harder he tried to focus on the picture and where he might be in it, the more the image seemed to blur, an ache building behind his eyes to stab at his skull.

Another moment where he tried to fight past the ache and he squeezed his eyes closed, waiting for it to fade. Fine, it looked like he wouldn't be satisfying that curiosity. He ignored the disappointment with fatigued experience, hoping his voices would wake soon so he could distract himself from his most recent failure.

"This is it, right Amaimon?"

They'd woken. He blinked, seeing Rin had put his tail away while he'd been recovering from the sudden bout of exhaustion.

"Alright, let's go, then."

The next sequence of events happened in quiet efficiency, Amaimon standing to snap, the action once again having no results he could see. It must have been related to _him_, then. It settled in his mind that, even if he couldn't overcome the force keeping him from perceiving himself, it couldn't stop him from noticing other things that indicated his existence.

Their journey began, faint outlines appearing each time they touched down on the horizon that suggested a mountain range. He noted the shivers Amaimon couldn't hide, more apparent because Rin seemed so unaffected beside him, running as if he didn't feel the temperature at all.

How long would it take them to reach their destination? From what the last bout of his awareness had let him know, this was where they had been headed the entire time since he'd come to in his prison.

A gleam on his horizon caught his attention, pulling it from contemplating his voices as he tried to see what had broken the formless sky. But nothing made itself clearer to him, the light almost transparent and flickering whenever he thought he'd brought it into focus.

Their destination, maybe? That blinding being he'd seen in other scenes had given off similar light. But it was all speculation without anything else to tie it together.

"Hey," Rin's voice startled him, and he felt the urge to frown that he'd been lost in his head again when he might miss some important detail, "I noticed something, about -, when I was in his head."

Something important like a reference to _him_. His breath caught, waiting to see what thing Rin might mention that he knew was about him this time and included their meeting in his head.

"When I saw him in there it was just this little spark- like a tiny flame, you know?"

What? He wanted to frown. What did Rin mean, a small flame?

"He just looked so small, under that curse that's stuck on him," Rin said everything with complete sincerity, and he tried to puzzle out why it made Amaimon look like he'd been slapped upside the face unexpectedly. "So like, is that because the curse is draining him, or something?"

Was he speaking about his core? Of course, to a being like Rin, anything else would seem small in comparison.

"Hah!" Sharp laughter from Amaimon had his internal frown deepening, sensing he'd missed a beat.

Rin didn't know either by his sigh, but he couldn't tell whether it was because of his utter lack of knowledge of demons or another reason. "Ok, what did I say this time?"

"-" at least the mirth on Amaimon's face and in his laugh were a nice break from his usual blank expression, "- isn't _small_."

Oh. Yes, he saw now. It was a cute misconception, to be sure. He closed his eyes again, allowing the remainder of the conversation to wash over him as Amaimon revealed what he'd already learned from previous memories of Abduxuel. His place amongst the ranks of demons wasn't new information, but it was nice to have it confirmed twice so that he knew things hadn't changed from however long ago Abduxuel had died.

Who knew how long it would take for a new representation of Abduxuel's concept to arise. Had one of the previous unnamed voices been the new concept of space? It seemed unlikely, if two of the three Amaimon had listed as above him in rank were Rin and Father and the third was probably the blinding being he'd seen. Though without his memories of anyone else, he would never know.

A record skip and he forced his mind back to the present, frowning at the difficulty it took to open his eyes again.

Light blinded him, obscuring the form of what looked like a spark on the horizon, the demon that had appeared drawing up a curl of familiarity he couldn't place.

Some kind of light kin?

Then the demon attacked and Amaimon flew back across the sky. A hiss tried to escape his lips, eyes wide on the sight of flesh burning from Amaimon only for an audible hiss of flame and Rin's snarl to snap his gaze away.

Blue flame devoured the enemy demon as Rin leapt towards where Amaimon lay with a shout of his name and panic on his face.

Surely Amaimon would recover from that, even a high-level demon like the light kin could never hope to destroy a king. Despite the thought, his body couldn't be convinced, adrenaline following his racing pulse.

The arrival of another demon stilled that pulse, watching with reptilian calm as Rin incinerated it with flames and a vicious roar before it could strike. Good. He could focus on Amaimon, unless more appeared, but Rin had shown he wouldn't let them get another attack through and they would be alert for future encounters.

Amaimon healed under Rin's protective gaze. Slowly, far more slowly than he had done previous injuries. He narrowed his eyes, picking through the holes in his mind for a reason.

Too much expanded energy after his possession by Father? The earlier damage from Rin? From escaping the horde? He'd come back from each without a word to Rin. Covering a weakness, it seemed. He must have thought they would accomplish their goal before it became a problem, but the newest attack had exacerbated the signs enough that he couldn't hide them anymore.

Gold glinted as Amaimon regained consciousness, sight glazed with tears he blinked away with a long hiss of pain. He pulled his arm from the once molten stone to let it fall to the side as if reaching for something, calming once it had settled.

"You're ok? He's ok?" Rin spoke in a low growl, vibrating with fury. Then he registered his words.

He. Rin had said 'he'.

Where?

Scouring the scene sent another spike of pain through his skull but he glared and pushed himself to think about the situation instead of trying to find where his body might be by sight, since something was obviously blocking him from the knowledge.

So, there were only two places he could be at any time, either with Rin or Amaimon. Given Rin's question, that meant he'd been carried by Amaimon. It also meant he'd been caught in the attack by the light kin.

Rin kneeling at Amaimon's side with that dangerous expression still twisting at his features had him wondering just how bad the damage to his body was, though surely he had healed from it by then.

That expression on Rin's face shifted to another one of concern when Amaimon rose and snapped to repair his clothes. But it met a baleful look from Amaimon, and he realized Rin had never gotten an answer to his question.

"It's nothing you can help with," Amaimon said. He wanted to frown again, seeing Rin appraising him at the confirmation that neither of their senses hadn't been lying, something was wrong with Amaimon.

They continued, silence once more falling between them and within the walls of his prison, although by the way their clothes and hair lashed at their faces, he knew the wind in their mountainous environment should have been making a louder sound than it actually did.

Nothing further attacked, the gleaming light in the distance grew clearer, more defined, as he lingered on the fact that he might soon be freed. Would he wake up with his memory restored? The connections between he, Rin, and Amaimon were still hidden, not having woken up to them as he had the ones of Abduxuel just yet.

Anticipation colored his mood, setting him on edge the rest of the silent path until a final leap upwards brought them to the base of where that light gleamed. Instead of heading into what he could just make out to be some type of palace, Rin seemed mesmerized by whatever he saw on the surface of the nearest part. Amaimon didn't rush him, and eventually Rin broke from his contemplation to study the area in front of Amaimon.

Ah, it could have been a reflective surface, perhaps, given Rin wouldn't be used to his new appearance yet. Never mind that he hadn't gotten his worry about Amaimon assuaged and even _he_ could see the bruises under his eyes were deeper than before.

Rin swept his gaze over where Amaimon's reflection would be a last time but refrained from saying anything.

Then something on the edge of his perception alerted him to a change, aware that Rin and Amaimon had also turned to look at a faraway place on the horizon, their expressions guarded.

Like the bright light and Father's body of flame, a new concept appeared in his prison.

Power like a dark wave running over itself in endless rivers made up the concept moving towards their position.

"What the-?" Rin's mumbled surprise had him wondering what they were seeing on the outside and how or if it differed, but he let the curiosity die to wait for anything he might glean from the interaction.

"Don't underestimate them, Rin," Amaimon's warning had him stilling his thoughts further, knowing that they walked a precarious path forward as the concept made it to stand opposite them.

"Rin Okumura. You made it, finally- or, not finally, um." The weak voice gave a better picture of what may have thrown Rin off about the concept. Its mask of hesitance and nerves would make it easy to underestimate a demon if one couldn't see the power it held.

"Welcome, Rin Okumura." Such a greeting after the attack earlier had his lips twitching in a frown. Although every concept had been pleased to see Rin, of the ones he had witnessed, this newest had been precipitated by an attack clearly meant to kill.

"Er, thanks," Rin said, just as off-put by the welcome and trailing away, a smart call. It was best to allow them the floor so that any information might give them the edge needed to better negotiate while keeping their own cards close at hand.

A shift drew away Rin's confusion, falling to a hard glare the longer the silence continued.

"Take us to -," the dangerous growl and billow of steam from Rin's mouth moved things along.

With a stuttered reply, the concept hurried to obey. In all ways, it appeared contrite, though it kept speaking, "we felt your awakening- ah, I guess you already knew that. Really, everyone felt it. We're glad you survived."

The more he listened and added up the actions, the more it seemed as if the concept were an animal pretending at injury to lure unsuspecting prey. By Rin's short response, he hadn't let the feeble act fool him, having taken Amaimon's warning to heart.

"You must be cold, Amaimon." He snapped his gaze towards Amaimon after the concept spoke, hearing the undercurrent of viciousness. It sounded like it contained a specific dig at Amaimon, a precision strike at a chink in his armor.

Though Amaimon hid it well, it wasn't enough to deter the concept, and he knew it geared up for a second attempt, for what reason, he couldn't tell.

Like an insidious venom, the next words slipped from the dark waters, "you didn't take so long to come home this time."

Why the pressure towards Amaimon? Every word to Rin had been generous, and, his eyes widened, even the attack had only been on him and Amaimon. It was impossible to say if that had been deliberate or the demons just hadn't had the chance to aim for Rin before they'd been taken out.

Until he could uncover more to the motives of whoever was pulling the strings, he didn't have enough gathered together to make a completed tapestry.

Despite the lack of reaction from Amaimon and Rin's building ire beginning to burn in his irises, the digging continued.

"It must be hard on you, being here, I haven't seen your vessel like this in awhile." Ah, so he'd picked up on Amaimon's weakness and, like any good predator, was going after the faltering link.

"I guess it's ok, you're nowhere near as damaged as you were the last time you came here."

What this concept was failing to see was that Amaimon was _not_ unprotected, and, when the strongest in the vicinity wasn't the antagonizing concept, the efforts _would_ see results, though not the ones it might be hoping for.

A grin that would have bared fangs had he been able to, sliced through him as the poor concept pressed one step too far.

"That's too bad, even with that perfect vessel you can't escape it, you just can't escape your _weakness_, even now."

"-," Amaimon's voice shivered with an unspoken threat. The glow of power in his eyes might have taken his attention. Might have.

Delight rose in his skin as the real threat in the room chose to show itself.

Rin's flames licked just beneath his skin, showing as warping irises and fangs that had begun to peek over his lips with his growl.

"Amaimon, is not weak." He gave an internal shiver when Rin spoke, eyes shuttering with pleasure to see the flinch in the concept bearing the brunt of that power.

"It's cold out here, take us inside." Wonderful. It was good to see Rin had moved so far beyond the unsure, inexperienced thing he had been at the start of it all.

Without another word, Rin stalked forward, leading and not looking back like he was confident he would be followed.

Blue irises appeared glacial when Rin turned to the concept at his heels, staring it down until it found its voice and hurried to take them to their destination.

His gaze wandered their path, wishing he could see the surroundings for what he determined would be the final time being there. They would face the being composed of blinding light that waited for them far above and he would thank them before tracking down the source of his curse. Then he would make the being responsible _apologize_ for an eternity.

"Thank you, -," a familiar voice broke him from the comforting dark behind his closed eyes and a growl tried to rise at realizing he'd nearly slipped under for the second time since waking.

He couldn't afford to give into his weakness, not at this pivotal moment. They hadn't freed him yet, he hadn't remembered his name.

How could he have even allowed that loss of control when the blinding concept who'd been in the memory of Abduxuel's death stood across Rin and Amaimon?

"Rin Okumura," the voice came in greeting, once again going to Rin first. At his side, Amaimon stayed silent, guarded.

A flicker of light and Amaimon froze, pupils slivering as if he'd been pinned beneath an invisible pressure. Rin noticed the tension and shifted, drawing the attention away from Amaimon until breaths started up in his chest again.

That…

…That had been a direct threat at Amaimon, the second he'd been at the mercy of. Neither of the two concepts had greeted him as they had Rin, either.

Some previous grudge? But, by the confusion Amaimon covered as the concept who'd guided them left to join the other, it must have been a recent change.

"-," Amaimon began, leaving the issue of their anger at him to focus on their purpose, "- is cursed, it's the King Killer."

Breath hissed from his lips at what he knew was Amaimon using _his_ name. Why couldn't he hear it? Why, when he could hear where it would be? He'd watched Amaimon's lips but couldn't see the syllables he'd shaped.

"Yes," the concept of light said in answer, "Briar Rose Syndrome."

Why that name? King Killer made sense, but Briar Rose was a human name. Had he heard it used before? The knowledge remained elusive, forcing him to drop his attempts as another spike of pain warned him away. He struggled to gather his threads with a difficulty he hadn't experienced since the early memories in his prison.

"You aren't surprised," Amaimon said, suspicion sending him forward as if he had any hope of defending Rin, not when he was the weakest in the room. It stopped him from trying to dig the meaning of the curse's name from the scattered threads.

"By now, everyone has heard of your quest, Amaimon," the concept said, a chill lurking in its voice that sent his hackles trying to rise. That voice spoke with hidden motives even he could see despite lacking the same recognition Amaimon had.

At least Amaimon had also seen the danger, his mask cracking before he could seal the fault line again.

"You must have guessed by now who the other among us was cursed and survived, Amaimon,"

By Amaimon's own lack of surprise, he had, though he didn't say it right away, choosing to lay out the groundwork of their journey to that point and ending on, "do you know who it was?"

After a pause, the concept confirmed what he'd suspected, tying the thread into place.

"It was me."

If any cure existed, it would be found at this place. He could see Rin, taut with what must be an urge to hurry things along and a part of him shared it, but the larger part watched Amaimon.

"Is there a cure?" Amaimon said, face indicating he was aware of the dance the other concept was leading them on and wasn't happy.

"In a way, yes." Yes. Yes! If there existed the slightest chance, he would rip himself from his prison however he could. His skin itched in phantom waves. A deep hatred at the miserable lukewarm waters shocked him with its suddenness when he'd just had a taste of Rin's flames burning real sensation into his numbed body.

Having the possible end to his torment made tolerating it any longer a monumental feat. Frustration he'd shoved down each waking sent him writhing in his mind as his breath quaked from lungs that squeezed on a scream. Nothing happened. Of _course_ nothing happened and he shouldn't be disappointed by that fact at the current stage. He'd only succeeded in wearing himself out as he gave up, slumping and fighting through numbed senses to listen again.

"The cure is hidden in the name given to the curse by the humans." The name. Briar Rose Syndrome. He should know that name. Hadn't he known it already? It felt more recent, something from the memories in his prison, instead of the ones he'd held before. Amaimon wouldn't know it- maybe Rin? But it also felt like he should know it outside of the context of his memory lapse in the same way he knew what a demon was or some other common bit of knowledge that didn't relate to him personally.

"It's from one of their tales about a human cursed to sleep." That, he knew. There were many legends and stories the humans had created about curses, each one as fascinating as the last, and he'd absorbed them all.

There was only one that had risen above the rest of those particular fairytales.

The connection between the name and the curse and the cure clicked into place just as Rin gasped, "there's no way- what does some rose have to do with Sleeping Beauty?"

Sleeping Beauty.

White noise washed the response to Rin's demand for an explanation under a wave of denial. How? Lying, the concept must have been lying. How could a cure be something so unquantifiable? Who determined the parameters? His breaths came faster. He wanted to scream again, but for much different reasons.

"The curse takes them anyway," the concept said, voice muffled by the blood rushing in his ears, "and it takes true love's kiss to wake them."

Amaimon loosed a hiss that echoed the one dragging in his throat, "demons don't love. Don't _lie_ to us."

Yes, that demons didn't love was a fact! He wasn't convinced even humans loved. Where was the single definition for it that any human could agree on? The laws of the universe were made up of unchangeable numbers, a code that defined everything in existence. _Love_ wasn't included in that list.

"You, you fell in love?" Rin didn't seem to think so, but he wouldn't have expected anything different from him, glaring at the blinding light on the horizon for playing on Rin's humanity.

"I was." Leading Rin on- and why hadn't Amaimon interjected to stop the farce?

"Was?" A glance at Amaimon's face showed him to be stunned, pupils dilated in glazed eyes. _Useless_. Would he leave Rin to handle things alone? They couldn't afford to falter at this stage, couldn't afford to get emotional.

"Long ago, before Father, before my current conflict with -," the words snapped him from staring at Amaimon back to the concept of light. That conflict he spoke about was the one he apparently fought opposite of. Another mention of his name he couldn't hear.

"There was a human."

What? A human? He stared at the light until black spots filled his vision, unable to process the conflicting information tangling threads in his mind.

"But you want to kill humans, destroy Assiah," Rin said, pulling one of the threads free. It allowed his mind to quiet, seeing that he wouldn't be taken in by the game the light concept insisted on, "that's what you said when you took -, so why?"

"If you loved a human, why would you try to kill them?" Rin's shout darkened his glare, pleased he'd thrown the hole in the logic back at the light concept but not that he still believed the initial lie.

"The one who saved me wanted to live a human lifespan, no matter how many ways to immortality I tried to provide," the light concept said, perfectly demure as he spun Rin deeper into his web, "And, when they died, I knew the truth of things."

"What truth?" Rin growled.

"This universe we exist in is one of inequality." That wasn't a surprising fact. When creatures like the light concept existed alongside ones as trivial as ants, there would always be a clear hierarchy.

"Why should there be such a vast difference between humans and demons?" An edge of fanaticism seeped into the voice, "when humans live as mayflies yet have the power to conceptualize demons, and then leave us to suffer in our formed egos and failing bodies, is that fair?"

Nothing was fair, it just _was_ and to pretend differently just made fools of the pretenders.

"My love taught me that. I suffered centuries more before I had my revelation." But, the one with the alleged cure wouldn't let his lie go, so Rin and Amaimon would need to find a way to trick the real cure from him or their efforts would fail.

"It would be better to bring everything back to non-existence than there be a world full of such suffering. If even love can't change the laws of the universe, then I will make it one where no one has to feel that pain of loss at all."

Deluded, the light concept was deluded if it really thought going back to that insufferable nothingness would be better. He knew that misery as well as he'd come to know his current one. He'd choose his prison over nothingness. At least in his prison he had Rin and Amaimon.

Rin had come to the same conclusion by the wide eyes and disbelief in his voice, "you want to destroy the world because you lost someone?"

Not the way he would put it, but Rin had still managed to break the illogical speech down to its base componentry.

"Fine, that doesn't make any sense. Just because you're in pain doesn't give you the right to decide other people's lives." Another truth from Rin. Though what he was missing was that, while pain didn't give someone rights, power certainly did, and this blinding embodiment of light had more than any other in existence. Well, any other besides Rin and Father.

"Never mind, just tell me one thing, then, because I still don't understand." At least Rin had given up on that avenue. There wouldn't be any reasoning with the light concept that would sway him, too entrenched in his beliefs to change, never mind the notion that a demon could change at all.

"Why did Abduxuel die?"

_Abduxuel_. His breath caught, gaze jerking to Rin and trying to understand where his question had come from.

"Amaimon said - had a claim with him, that they were the only two of you guys with a complete bond." His heart had begun to pound. That was _his_ claim Rin spoke of, his claim with Abduxuel. What did it have to do with anything?

"So why wouldn't true love's kiss work? - didn't just let him die, so why couldn't he save him?" If Amaimon had been still before, now, after what Rin had just said, he appeared carved from stone, but a fragile one, easily shattered. He mirrored Amaimon's unsteadiness, vertigo rushing through him as what Rin meant lanced straight to his core.

"You're right." He could hear the light concept speaking as if he had been pulled back beneath the waters, a whirlwind taking him under the same as Father had done and exactly as impossible to free himself from on his own.

"- tried to save him. And when he failed, he came to the conclusion that such a thing was a purely human invention and that he was incapable of it. He's resented me ever since." Tried to save Abduxuel? Of course he would have and to suggest otherwise was insanity. His teeth pressed together around a strangled whine that wouldn't come.

"How?" Rin spoke the question straining at him, the one he needed answered. "- tried to save him, so how wasn't it enough? What kind of dumb curse was this?"

"When I left him in this room with Abduxuel that final day, he asked me the same thing."

He gasped, the light welling to fill his vision. Then it vanished, taking Rin and Amaimon with it.

* * *

Blinking cleared the black spots from his eyes to see only the blinding light remained. Tears burned at him from overexposure, but he forced himself through it to try to snarl at the concept. He knew without having to be told that it looked at _him_, not Rin or Amaimon.

Good, now that he had its attention he could get real answers, lashing out with the need to find a cure.

"There's nothing to tell," it said, though he hadn't spoken out loud. "What you feel isn't love."

How dare it continue that meaningless lie when the audience it wanted to lead on wasn't even there. Between the two of them, there was no reason to hold back the truth. It wasn't like there was anyone he would share it with, not cursed as he was.

"That's the only answer there is."

The only answer? Maybe for a demon without the natural ability of creation that humans had. It was impossible to think of a solution, missing all the facts as he was, but that didn't mean one didn't exist. He just needed more time to discover a cure.

"There isn't, -." He bit off an internal snarl as that placid tone droned on with the same tired response. "You won't find any loopholes. There are no arguments or alternatives."

Bullshit! There was always another path!

"Not this time."

Seething breaths panted from his chest, the only signs he could show of his rage as he railed against the light. Air wouldn't come to his lungs, a dizziness setting in. The vertigo was back.

"The others have all left, -. It's just you who hasn't let go yet."

Who was this being to speak of letting go when it had just announced its failure to keep some worm it claimed to love alive? How could it tell him to let go when he'd had such a short time to even try in the first place? Where was its 'justice' it played at having?

"I've given you everything you need to save Abduxuel. All the tools are at your disposal."

Abduxuel?

What? His thoughts fell apart, scattered by the name of his other half.

"If you can't save him then it's because the bond you have isn't love," the light concept kept speaking as if he hadn't caused a rift in his mind and then torn it open with the newest line.

Oh.

The threads rearranged themselves and air returned to his lungs.

This was a memory.

Faint outlines fought to appear behind the light but the more he squinted up at them, the less defined they became until he gave up. At least with this memory he could learn more about himself, though it wouldn't help Rin or Amaimon back in the present.

It was still meaningless, what the light concept had said. He'd had a reciprocated claim when no other amongst the Ba'al could say the same. To imply that some vague attachment like love was any stronger than the bond he'd shared with Abduxuel was _lunacy_.

"Then why hasn't he woken, -? What will you do now that you've run out of time? You can't stall any longer without also killing yourself."

It didn't matter! He would hold on as long as he had energy in his vessel, a beat in its heart and control over lungs that would begin filling with his blood until he drowned. The pain of a degrading vessel could be overcome, he would overcome it.

The light grew faint on the horizon, leaving him in his prison as if it thought its shallow words were enough. Bitterness curdled in his gut. They were _worthless_ to him. It didn't stop the light from fading.

Where was it going? It hadn't told him the cure yet! He still needed the cure, and to know why Abduxuel wouldn't wake.

A pause, the light had grown to a bare wisp of itself.

"Give up." He sucked in a breath at the faint words that hit like they'd been shouted. "If you haven't figured it out by now, haven't learned to love Abduxuel at this point, then you never will."

His prison echoed with a flicker of light and words that ran over in his head to form one giant morass sucking him down. Then the light was gone entirely and rage came to replace it as he screamed, body whipcord tense with the shackled fury that battled the exhaustion eating at his will.

Love? That wasn't an answer!

Did that concept think it was fooling anyone with its lies? His vision darkened like the black spots were back, having clenched his eyes closed because it was the only thing he could even do in his miserable prison, the only expression of the fury battering at his frayed mind.

Even that tension in his body became too much. He couldn't fight the quicksand sleep always washing a little more of him away with every heartbeat.

Not yet, he couldn't sleep yet. Rin and Amaimon were still searching for an answer. They were still out there with that damned, hypocritical concept.

He blinked, then mentally recoiled at the sight his eyes opened to. The outlines that had tried to break through the energy given off by the light concept finally scrawled their way into existence.

In front of him a face had taken shape. A moment later recognition followed and with it, the glow of a claim.

Several realizations hit him at once as his reality trembled on an unsteady axis. He couldn't right himself, the quiet of his prison smothering his senses to just the claim and the vision barely an inch away.

Abduxuel, his body held up like a mirror, one broken and tarnished, rotted away. Or maybe they'd both reached that point of decay, unrecognizable except to each other by the claim they shared and the aspects filling their vessels.

Time dripped, forming stalagmites in his mind.

He stared at the ruined face and couldn't recall the picture of Abduxuel before the rot.

As if through a haze, he reached out to feel the edges of Abduxuel's aspect beneath the curse. For a moment, the distant memory of being cradled within the core of space at the start of it all consumed him in the urge to curl up there again, to blanket himself there and never leave.

His breath exited on an exhale that distantly registered as a long, strained whine, so weak it dispersed before it made it past the dead air between his mouth and Abduxuel's.

Over it all, above everything, their claim glowed.

What good was a claim if it wouldn't save him?

Already, without Abduxuel able to renew his side of the claim, it had faded. He'd continued anyway, kept holding on, knowing it was only his claim tethering them together.

It was just a memory, this event had passed years ago so why, what good would it do to revisit an old wound? What answers would he gain in the echo of the past he'd found himself in?

As if to mock his questions, Abduxuel's breaths brushed his face, a prickle of sensation that might as well have been an electric shock to his nerves gone numb in the dead air. Beneath the water, his ears picked up the thud of a heartbeat that wasn't his own, though it matched the one in his chest.

The sound of Abduxuel's heart became a metronome, quieting his thoughts until he'd been consumed by the steady beat, unable to hear anything else.

True love's kiss, the concept of light had said. How many times had he tried it before Abduxuel had reached the state he was in? What good would once more even be? Not that he could move in his prison, but if this were a memory, then he wouldn't have to, couldn't change it if he wanted to.

He could picture it, the final hour. The urge to pace filled his numbed vessel and his eyes burned with phantom tears as thoughts screamed in an endless, voiceless rage.

You can't leave me- _you can't_. You're _mine_.

Abduxuel couldn't hear him, no one could. He'd been robbed of his words by the curse that he couldn't even free _himself_ from, let alone another.

There wasn't any use fighting the inevitable, because the claim still glowed above them, but it was unreciprocated. More than that, it would drain him as surely as the curse. If he didn't let go, the attachment would kill him, but in letting go, Abduxuel would die.

Was there really a choice?

Hadn't he derided Amaimon for the same thing back before he'd realized who, exactly, Amaimon had been staring at with such utter contempt in his eyes? He'd wanted to kill the one responsible for Abduxuel's death.

Bitterness at the cruel irony ate away at him, taking pieces he knew he would miss when they were gone. When Abduxuel was gone. _He_ was an essential piece- had been, never would again.

Once more. He knew it was useless, but if he didn't try at least one more time, then how would he know for sure?

Only in his mind, he moved the last inch forward in a defeated press to rotted lips, felt the faint breaths and lingering taste of his other half, the shape of a soul that fit perfectly to his, a claim he'd never allowed from anyone else.

He let go, each thud of Abduxuel's heart lasting an eternity as he counted the seconds in between.

Then they stopped.

* * *

His eyes opened, and Abduxuel was gone. Rin and Amaimon had taken his place, looking marginally better than he felt. At least they didn't look defeated.

"What - felt for Abduxuel," the light had returned, speaking without any apparent interruption to say the past had become present, "was the love one has for an object, a possession- or a piece of themselves."

Rin's sharp exhale jogged him from the stupor he'd been in and it took him an extra moment to go back over what he'd heard. A tired skip of his pulse went through him, a slow blink when he searched for the usual cold rage such a statement would have created before.

He couldn't find the energy.

"You wouldn't say you loved your hand or your hair or any part of your body in the same way you would a loved one. This is what - couldn't understand."

Abduxuel had been as necessary for his functioning as any piece of his vessel, why was that so different to whatever love was defined as? Why had one definition been superior to the other? Why hadn't it been enough?

"So," Rin's voice came in a shudder he felt in his own body, "he tried, at least. For as long as he could."

He had. But tried was a meaningless word.

"You said he resented you," Amaimon said, speaking up finally, and a low undercurrent pricked his senses, alerted to the hinted violence.

"That he believed himself incapable of it," gold eyes narrowed at the light as the stasis Amaimon had been under cracked to reveal a core of vicious shards to cut his tongue when they passed his lips, "But _you_ never said you believed he was incapable of it."

Those shards broke free like they'd been inside him, too. His eyes shot open, pupils flicking over the outlines on his horizon in erratic patterns.

The frown and Rin's slow sentence didn't cover the adrenaline shoving at the tide of his exhaustion, "He said he told - to give up."

Irrelevant, Rin, he wanted to shout, chest heaving with the effort. Amaimon knew, he must have pieced it together.

"He said - would never learn to love _Abduxuel_," Amaimon said. Yes. it was obvious! Red filled his vision, an encroaching fury he could do _nothing_ about.

"Not that he didn't think - couldn't love at all," Rin said. He still hadn't gotten it, though he at least followed Amaimon's physical cues, claws and fangs extending as he glared at the light, "But why does that matter?"

"- was cursed," Amaimon spat the condemning information, "Abduxuel was cursed."

"Who did it?"

His tapestry tightened, the new threads tying in place, hard and glinting with the gore he ached to coat his claws in.

"Who cursed them?"

Glass shards became a whirlwind, slicing his insides to ribbons.

"Who did it, _-?_" Amaimon hissed and it echoed the one trying to escape from his lips

"Amaimon!" Rin's shout added fire to his gut, burning him from inside because he knew! He knew now.

Blue flares in Rin's eyes seared into Amaimon's wild gaze, quelling him, taking him from the hairpin trigger he'd been on down to simmering. That gaze cut through his own howling storm where'd he'd lost himself in the inferno, tossed between the knowledge of who'd been behind Abduxuel's death and his imprisonment and the pressure of Rin's power.

_Stop. It's futile, stop, stop, stop!_

Control, he needed _control_.

"Well?" The deep growl from Rin and clear demand for an answer that wouldn't be denied allowed him to think past his lapse in rationality. His lips pursed, breaths panting through his nose as he tried to convince his vessel anger wouldn't help him, would only tire him quicker.

Were the black spots in his vision because of the light or his own draining reserves, now?

Coughing from the light concept extended the pause, and he could see Amaimon's growing impatience besides Rin's darkened expression.

"Your guess is right. I cursed both Abduxuel and -."

The culprit _revealed_ itself. Thorned vines twisted coils in his mind, lashing out at shadowed corners to draw blood as the burning started in his head again. It seemed like he wouldn't have much searching to do after-all

"-," the light said his name, voice weary as if it felt human regret for its actions. The thought curdled inside him, that it could pretend at human compassion at this stage, "forever considers himself above the rest of existence- despite his fascination with humans and their creations."

More unnecessary filler, a pretty trail of words to cover the truth of the matter.

"And, he especially enjoys laughing at their fixation on the concept of love."

Why should that make a difference?

"I thought the same, once upon a time." When had the change come? What had led it to the final decision to set the curse down?

"Until I met and was saved by my own beloved and I realized that - shouldn't go the rest of existence without reaching the same understanding." It didn't matter, in the end. What mattered was the consequences, the actions, and the outcome. Intentions meant _nothing_.

"You," Rin still puzzled through the thought-process, though what more he expected to find, he didn't know, "wanted - to fall in love?"

As if that gave the light any more nobility to its actions than another, more sinister plot.

"Yes. He mocked what he thought was a fabricated story, believing I had been taken in by the typical demonic obsession that we are all familiar with, and that my curse was a random aberration in what makes us up." A demon, no matter how powerful, would always be ruled by physical desire and its own nature. What did the light hope to achieve by believing otherwise? What was its real goal in all this?

"That I couldn't possibly have felt what the humans term 'love' and he terms less real than their fairy tales." He wanted to snort at that statement. Fairytales were beginning to look more real than the light's proposed 'love'.

"And, I saw the way - had come so close on his own with Abduxuel. I didn't realize at the time that it was because he wanted to be whole- that he looked at Abduxuel as an extension of himself instead of an individual to love, and that was Abduxuel's downfall." His thoughts bristled with bitterness at every mention of Abduxuel's name from the light. As if it could speak as his mouthpiece now that he was dead.

Wanted to be whole? An extension of himself? What right did the light have to think it was any sort of authority on what he and his other half had been to each other?

"You can't just decide that for someone," Rin said in a harsh snap, and it soothed a piece of himself to hear it. "So what if he didn't understand? That's not your call to make."

"It was to save him. Abduxuel's death was an unfortunate result of a flaw in my plan." Anger turned frostbitten, a hard core of ice that drew hot blood where it pierced his insides. Because he had mocked the light's supposed love, it had taken Abduxuel and dressed it up as a gift, not a punishment. Then it had decided to go for him directly as if it hadn't punished him enough.

"Save him- what?" Energy spun around Rin with his rising voice, blue flame licked behind his fangs with his shout, "you tried to kill - too! Your damn angels almost got him and Amaimon. How can you say you tried to save him?"

Exactly! He-

A flicker of movement from the shadowed concept at the light's side broke his bloodied thoughts and he saw energy building there, too. Where was it aimed at? Rin's accusations might have been the spark but it conflicted with the way they'd treated him the entire time.

Amaimon? A quick glance told him Amaimon was still stuck in that stunned silence. Had he noticed the danger, yet?

"The seraphim were supposed to destroy Amaimon and allow you and - through." Further danger sent his hackles raising as the light answered Rin's question. "_You_ should have been carrying -, not him."

"You were gonna kill Amaimon?" Rin's horror drenched the thread that spun out into his tapestry. He knew where the threat from the shadowed concept was directed at, what the light's plan had been all along.

"His host body would have been destroyed and he would have found another."

Rin snarled a curse that rang in his ears, jumbling with the knowledge that clawed its way to the forefront of his mind.

"You risked his life on some random bullshit idea that I might fall in love with him? What kind of brother are you?"

A hollow whine, soft and barely heard, came from Amaimon's lips, face twisted in a crumpled expression as if he'd lost control.

Snarling drowned it out, the power shattering from the shadowed concept to swallow Amaimon in the center of a blizzard. Hoarfrost spread beneath his body, shimmering in intricate patterns that would have been beautiful if it hadn't been covering blackening skin from subzero temperatures.

"You ruined it, Amaimon!" Its shout rang over the storm, sending his prison rippling and his fangs aching to extend, "It's your fault -'s dead, all because you interfered!"

Amaimon's fault? Confusion sent his thoughts tripping as he tried to piece the logic together as the force finally sent Amaimon to his knees, caught and unable to break from the overwhelming power.

They'd shown their true colors, the threat that had been at Amaimon's throat slicing down in an executioner's blow. Was it affecting his body too? Amaimon held him, though he couldn't see himself, and he was helpless to defend against such a brutal attack.

"Why couldn't you just let your vessel fail facing Father? Everything would have been fine if you'd just given up when it started!" Had they planned for that too? Or had it been a happy coincidence? Why would taking Amaimon from the picture- the reason hit him and he wrenched his gaze from Amaimon to the center of the plot.

Wide eyes and a face slackened in shock met his sight. Rin stared at the damage creeping across Amaimon the longer he was trapped. What was Rin _doing?_

Blue welled in Rin's eyes and his shock fell away.

"Back off!"

Fire flared on his horizon, the phantom sensation of it prickling along his numbed skin as Rin acted. Despite the light blinding him, he squinted through it to watch Rin stalk into Amaimon's space, bringing a hand covered with flame to his neck where he'd been wavering in the absence of the ice savaging his vessel.

Through the warped features and twisting irises, Rin appraised Amaimon, a frown pulling at his lips at the dazed expression Amaimon managed to raise from his slumped position.

One last sweep and Rin let out a steadying exhale as he dropped the flames. His hand stayed at Amaimon's neck, clutching to it as if assuring himself he wouldn't fall.

"Amaimon is the _only_ reason I even made it here," Rin said when he had the room's attention, sending flinches through the two concepts and Amaimon in his hold.

His own pulse jumped at the deadly threat, mouth parting on a breath at seeing the way Rin stole the wind from their wings, burning the feathers to ashes to send them plummeting to be swallowed by his pyre.

"_He's_ the only reason I'm not dead a million times over, that I wasn't executed by the Order, that I made it to Gehenna at all and was strong enough to fight through the damn place to get here."

All the ways their journey could have failed before it had begun, all the ways things could have ended up, but would it matter, in the end? When the only answer they'd been given involved something so undefinable, would the outcome change?

He'd filled in his tapestry only to find new branches, new threads spinning into the void that spoke of another picture he needed to piece together.

"So," Rin continued, "maybe you should have thought of that when you decided to curse - and leave me to save him."

Save him, Rin had promised to save him. He'd ripped Father from his mind and reached out with blue flame to push life into his core when he'd been about to go under. Promises were human things, though, and he shouldn't have placed his bets on the intangible. He knew that.

Rin didn't let up, snarling with a harsh gesture that cut as deeply as his glare, "and why would you even think about using me like that anyway? I didn't even have a claim with him like Abduxuel!"

Abduxuel. Their claim. He wanted to shiver. Why was Rin-? Of course, he was half human, he would associate the two bonds as one in the same.

What would a claim with Rin feel like?

"A claim isn't necessary, it only adds nuance to a bond," the light regained its ability to speak, goaded by Rin's demand and pulling him from the stray thought. It was no use wondering about something that might never happen, not if all the possible futures depended on one factor.

If he never escaped, then what-ifs meant nothing.

"As for why you were chosen, there were a number of reasons, but I first considered it when you came to retrieve your classmate from my lab." He shook himself as the light spoke, though he didn't recognize what it referenced and waited to see if he could glean anything from Rin or Amaimon.

"What? All the way back then?" Rin said, gaping.

"Yes," the light said, "Because of what - - told me when I asked about you."

"-?" Whoever the name belonged to, mention of it was enough to shock Rin from the warped irises.

"He told me your weakness was love, and I realized what I had been missing from the equation the first time around." Again, that word stabbed at him, twisting like a cruel dagger as he writhed to avoid it and couldn't.

"I realized that the missing piece was humanity, the catalyst that brings change to beings such as demons."

Humans as catalysts to change. That, he understood. How had the light fit it into an equation? It acted as if love were a hidden ingredient in a chemical reaction that could be measured and quantified, as if Rin were the key to solving for the unknown integer.

Rin was the key to his freedom, he knew that, and Amaimon-

A hacking, violent cough sent Amaimon hunching over with a hand to his mouth like he could muffle the wet rattle that told of liquid filling his lungs.

Then he noticed Amaimon hadn't healed.

"Amaimon?" Rin said, clear worry in his voice and gaze tracing the blackened flesh from the frostbite that scrawled ugly patterns over Amaimon's extremities. There was likely further damage on the rest of his vessel that his clothes hid, but why hadn't he healed yet?

The careful mask Amaimon stared up at Rin with didn't hide that his hand came away wet with blood. Internal damage. Tracing the red gleam over the ruin of Amaimon's face had his mind scrambling for an explanation. He was rotting from inside, body eaten away and not healing as it should be, given that according to Amaimon, it was his perfect vessel. So why?

"I told you," the shadowed concept cut in, sneer apparent in its words and getting an immediate glower from Rin, though it didn't stop him from speaking, "you just can't hide your weakness. Especially not here."

"I," Rin said with the same tattered patience he felt at the continuous run-around, "am getting real tired of that shit. What are you talking about?"

Only a sullen flicker of shadow answered Rin until the light intercepted on its behalf, "my apologies again, Rin. - is referring to the effect of my wards on Amaimon's vessel."

Wards? They hadn't been dropped? His breath hissed out of him, watching Amaimon where he stayed kneeled at Rin's side.

"He said-" Rin gasped, fingers spasming in their hold on Amaimon, "anything weaker degrades in your territories, that they can't survive for long, but he's-"

Exactly. It seemed Amaimon must have thought they would have their answer soon enough that the effects of a more powerful demon's wards wouldn't prove too taxing. A grimace tried to tug at his features. He would have counted on- may have hoped, at least- that the fight with Father wouldn't harm him more than he could handle.

"He is a weaker king, already damaged after your path through -' territory, the fight with Father, the attack by my kin, and now by -" the light said, putting into words what he'd been about to think, "and it's causing - to fade faster as well."

Rin jolted just as his own jolt hit. How much could his vessel take if he was under the effects of a curse? Did he look like Abduxuel had at the end? Unbidden, his mind flashed to a conversation that felt like a lifetime ago between Rin and Amaimon in the hot spring, the dread that had taken over Rin as he wondered how 'it' had spread so fast. They'd been referring to the rot consuming his body. He hadn't known, at the time.

"That's why you had the wards dropped when I came here last," Amaimon said, apathy in his voice and guarded, despite the weakness he couldn't hide. It made sense, what he'd said. He would never have brought Abduxuel to a place that would exacerbate the spread of his degradation.

So for Abduxuel to have been in this room for his final moments, the light would have had its wards dropped. A strange courtesy for the being that had caused the curse in the first place. A meaningless kindness or a desire to watch its plan unfold and both as feeble a reason.

Amaimon shifted, standing in a careful movement that almost hid the fine tremors in his limbs. Rin noticed, offering himself as a steady support at his side without a word. By the hard set to his features, he was prepared to parry any further attacks at Amaimon, daring them to try.

"The error is mine," the light said after a long beat, "I had thought this time I would succeed in my efforts but now I can see that isn't the case."

That was it? No! There had to be more, some other detail he could use. He wasn't done, yet!

"Who cares if you didn't make him fall in love?" Rin said, hissing as his mind recoiled at the damning words, "it's your curse, take the damn thing off him!"

No, Rin, it wouldn't. It wouldn't, because it hadn't removed the curse from Abduxuel. "It's impossible, I'm afraid, at this point."

"Why?" Rin's panic, the futility in his voice, sent a wave of ice to bury him in sinking realization.

"By now, it's hooked too deeply into his core." Like a vicious parasite, and he knew what would happen if the light did as Rin asked.

"Removing it will destroy him."

The ice shattered, fury driving a spike through the center as he railed against the future he could see on the horizon.

There had to be more! How dare the light come to them with false pity and act as if _they_ had failed him with their actions.

"There's nothing more I can tell you," the light said in answer while Rin snarled in denial. He didn't contradict the light, though, didn't demand the truth, looked instead as if he believed they'd gotten everything they could.

"Then will you be choosing a side, Amaimon? My offer still stands." Concerned about sides in the conflict? It was _practical_. He might have done the same were the situations reversed. Bitter delight sunk its fangs deep as Amaimon revealed where he'd placed his loyalties.

"I've sided with Rin," Amaimon said with no room for misinterpretation in his declaration, fangs bared to make it clear how exactly any further invitation would be taken.

"I see," came the calm reply from the light, met with stoic silence.

"I will give you three days." That was an ultimatum. His breath hitched, fury blowing out as if the oxygen had been sucked from his prison.

"Three days for what?" Rin said, glowering while, at his side, Amaimon stiffened, color draining beneath the damage he still hadn't recovered from.

"Three days to wrap up whatever you may need to before I come for you for Father, and of course, for - to die."

Three days. That was it? He'd barely become aware of himself in his prison, had only just learned Rin and Amaimon's names, remembered Abduxuel.

_He still didn't know his own name._

"I'll drop the wards so you can return to Assiah," the light continued as if it had already wiped its hands of the situation, "it's where he would prefer to be, in the end, even if he can't see it as he is."

He'd prefer to be free, to live! Not fade away without a fight in this miserable state.

Amaimon had bowed his head, the motion of him raising it to stare with deadened eyes at the light sending his thoughts spiraling beyond his control, his web in tatters. The light must have dropped the wards because the signs of frost burn erased themselves from what parts of Amaimon he could see.

A snap, and he was blinded, vision gone dark and his horizon empty, back to that gray nothingness. He lay, dazed as his eyes adjusted to the lack of light until soft lines etched themselves into the familiar shapes of his two voices.

They stood as if unaware of the location they'd arrived at. Then Rin collapsed, strings cut, to bend over his knees. He could already see Rin shaking, hear the hitched breaths that told him tears wouldn't be far along.

In the next breath, he was proven right, Rin breaking down in a heaving sob that grated on his ears, so far removed from the powerful creature that had torn through Gehenna to save him.

"I'm sorry!" Rin gasped between cries. He wanted them to _stop_, for Rin to return to that brilliant smile after he'd burnished his core in blue flame and told him he'd felt him, felt that he still fought.

"I failed!" Failed. Was it failure when the outcome was all but predetermined? It wasn't Rin's failure, he'd just been a pawn on a board, moving to another's whims.

"How did you fail?" Amaimon said, void of expression as if he were the one on the deathbed.

When he faded and Rin was taken for Father, then Amaimon would be the sole survivor for however long existence continued once the light won. He'd be alone, when everything came to an end.

Although, surely Rin would fight and Amaimon defend him, he couldn't see it any other way, or that either would go quietly. So it could be that Rin would survive the longest when Amaimon fell protecting him from his fate.

Possible futures shrunk to two outcomes, all his threads, the shape of his web and picture he'd built of his tapestry burnt to ashes because in the end he'd been toiling for nothing. All his struggling at the exhaustion, the times he'd ripped sleep from his mind just so he could glimpse one more scene of the voices in his prison, all of it led to the same place.

"I said I wouldn't fail you guys," Rin said, crying without attempts to muffle the wretched sounds, "I said I would save him!"

Nothing was set in stone, the future mutable, but Rin had been filled with such conviction and endless power, so he had believed it, too. He hadn't had a reason to doubt, at that point.

Amaimon sank down next to Rin as if his limbs were made of rusted parts and he'd fallen into disrepair, worn by the ages.

Blue eyes blinked up into Amaimon's empty gaze when Rin unwound from the tortured position he'd curled himself into to stare as if he would find an answer where there was none. Even now, at the end they'd come to, Rin looked at Amaimon with utter trust that he would know what to do.

"It's not your failure," Amaimon said to that trust, "it's mine."

Did it matter who had failed? The past was meant for hindsight, the future was what was necessary to focus on. What did they need to do to prevent the destruction of Assiah? How could they prevent their own destruction?

Vicious frustration turned helpless in a flash of energy that sparked and died in his chest. What good would planning for their survival do when he wouldn't be there to see it? He couldn't help them.

The only thing he could do was what he had from the start, lay and watch while the story played on without him.

"You were right from the start, we should have gone directly to -. He was the key to everything and could have removed the curse before it was too late," Amaimon said, missing the obvious.

"Something tells me that wouldn't have worked, either," Rin said with a look that showed he knew where that route would take them, "that bastard would have pulled some stupid reason out for why he wouldn't take it off and we'd be just as stuck, we'd just know it sooner."

Even without his memories of the light to say so, that outcome Rin painted was exactly what would happen if they had tried the direct approach.

Faint humor lifted Amaimon's lips but it fizzled out just as quickly and Rin lost what energy he'd had. They went back to staring in silence and he wondered if they were looking at him, wherever he'd been placed.

"It's no use, isn't it," Rin mumbled, bringing a sound from Amaimon that said he also didn't know what Rin meant.

"Loving him, it wouldn't make a difference, right?"

He- loving him?

"If he didn't love Abduxuel in a way that could break the curse," Rin kept talking as he scrambled to understand, "then what good would it do?"

"I don't," Amaimon tried to answer, "I don't know."

What was Rin talking about? He'd seen what the light had, what had gotten Amaimon attacked with such savagery by the shadowed concept.

Rin had spent the entire journey growing closer to _Amaimon_. He'd watched his two idiotic voices tiptoe around each other in the most infuriating dance he knew he would ever witness if he had millions of others to compare, had seen them go from near strangers to sleeping on top of each other in a cave in Gehenna. Weaknesses had come to light from the both of them that he knew had never been revealed to another soul and Amaimon had declared loyalty to Rin where before he had resisted joining either side in the conflict for centuries.

And yet Rin asked what good it would do if he loved _him_.

What was it, to have a being like Rin's definition of love, to have it directed at them?

"This is so stupid!" Rin shouted, and he realized his heart had begun pounding. It strained in his chest, struggling to beat.

"I just- I hate this, I hate it!" Tears made it to Rin's eyes, the blue wavering on the crest of his futile words.

"I made a promise." Rin broke on his final whisper, the last of his strength leaving him as he fell into Amaimon's chest and sobbed.

Amaimon rested a hand to Rin's back, over where his heart would be, while the other clutched at his own body like he would gut himself if he didn't have Rin there.

So human, but in a similar situation he might have done the same.

He _wanted_ to do the same, to tuck himself in the space between their bodies and let the mingled scents surround him until he forgot reality. As if to spite him, the scents of petrichor and otherworldly fire that had filled his prison with something other than dead air made themselves known to him again. He'd grown used to the scents, couldn't have imagined going back to what it had been before, a hollow cell without any scent, and when all he'd known was two nameless voices.

"It's not your fault," Amaimon said to Rin's worsening cries, having taken up rubbing at his back in a comforting motion that should have been as alien to him as any human mannerism.

"It was my weakness," a claw tapped at Rin's spine as Amaimon's words had him dragging his mind out of the aimless spiral he'd entered, "- wasn't just talking about my place in Gehenna's hierarchy."

His curiosity pulled itself from beneath black ashes trying to gather threads he'd scattered when he realized they wouldn't help him escape.

"You asked me," Amaimon said where he'd tucked his head to Rin's, "what my reason for helping - was, and why I helped you when no one else could say they didn't have ulterior motives."

It had slowed Rin's tears, though he kept himself attached to Amaimon as if he would lose him if he let go.

"Because I had ulterior motives too." What ulterior motives could Amaimon have had? He forced a tired memory to the surface of Amaimon claiming he had owed him for a perfect vessel, then had that turn into just one facet to Amaimon's reason. Rin had persisted until he'd gotten to what looked like the root of it all with Amaimon helping because Rin wouldn't bow to either side but also wouldn't force his decision. Rin offered freedom, but Amaimon's newest words told of an entirely new reason he'd kept hidden up to this point.

"I didn't know when it first started, but - saw through me," Amaimon said in a weary voice as he recalled distant memories, "and he dug at it until we fought and I left for Assiah."

He spoke of a weakness he hadn't even known he carried and it brought to mind the shadowed concept and the sly digs at Amaimon he'd wondered at the source of. It seemed he'd discovered it, though he still couldn't tell what that weakness might have been if it wasn't where Amaimon stood amongst the other Ba'al.

"Then I hid until Abduxuel's death called me back and by then I thought I'd covered it up." Rin had stopped his cries, pulling back to look up at Amaimon like he knew exactly what the weakness was that the shadowed concept had sensed and that Amaimon had tried to hide all those centuries.

"It wasn't about owing - at all, was it, Amaimon," Rin said, and it came out steady despite the evidence of his tears.

What else could the answer be? If it wasn't just the perfect vessel and it wasn't Amaimon's loyalty to Rin, then what reason could he have for risking everything for him when he'd directly stated he wouldn't join his side in the conflict?

"You love him too."

Distantly, he heard his breath rasp between his teeth, eyes sightless but set on Amaimon and the words 'you love him too' ringing in an endless echo in his head.

How? He- his gaze jerked to Rin but fled back to Amaimon like Rin had set his flames on him, beginning to pant with the confusion shaking his vessel to the core.

_Amaimon wasn't denying it._

"- always said not even the humans knew what it was, that demons only knew destruction." Amaimon's words swept him along in a tidal wave, breaching the stormbreak of his mind like it wasn't even there to choke him beneath the knowledge.

Where had that vicious denial gone from the earlier confrontation? Amaimon had snarled with utter certainty in his voice when he'd told the light not to lie to them after it had spoken of love. Yet now he implied the exact opposite with equal, quiet conviction.

"Wait," Rin said as he started shaking Amaimon, a spark of life returning to his body, "don't you realize, Amaimon?"

At this point he wanted to shake Rin too, would have settled for shaking either of them for the whiplash he had no choice but to endure.

"- was wrong about something," an actual grin overtook Rin's features and he tried to piece the convoluted thought process together, "being human has nothing to do with it!"

Nothing to do with what? Love? The answer came to him with more effort than it should have, despite being so out of his depth.

"You're not human, Amaimon. _He's_ not human," Rin said like it wasn't obvious at this stage, "that means that it doesn't take a human for demons to love!"

Oh.

_Oh_.

Had the shadowed concept not revealed Amaimon's weakness to the light? Or had the plan to use Rin with his humanity to teach him been deemed more likely to work because he hadn't been able to save Abduxuel, another demon?

Amaimon hadn't had any outside influence telling him what he felt until the shadowed concept had forced him to confront his developing weakness. What did that mean, in the scheme of things?

A golden glow in Amaimon's eyes that had risen with Rin's hope, dimmed as they shuttered, suddenly looking wearier than he'd ever been, "If he couldn't love Abduxuel, then it doesn't really matter what we feel."

The light fell from Rin's eyes, too, and what energy had been in him went with theirs. Maybe it was true that he couldn't love even to save himself, when he hadn't been able to save his other half.

If that was the case, then did it matter if love existed as more than an undeniable concept? Amaimon might love, Rin might love, but if he didn't, then it meant the same as an unfinished claim. One-sided and half-hearted.

"He's going to die, isn't he," Rin whispered, broken under the weight of the inevitable, "_I'm_ going to die."

He didn't _want_ to go. He didn't want to _die_.

There was so much to do still, so much he'd wanted to uncover about his two voices. Their story would continue in directions he couldn't predict and he wouldn't see any of it because he could already feel the curse eating at his remaining heartbeats.

Every thud of his heart put him closer to the same death-pattern Abduxuel had entered, and an all-consuming blackness encroached on the edges of his vision.

Was he under water again?

This time, Rin wouldn't be there to pull him free.

With sudden desperation, he struggled against the curse, memories of blue flame and the scent of petrichor and two roars that shook existence pushed at his failing mind. A scream he couldn't voice ached at his numbed limbs as he remembered the last sensation he'd felt in his prison, of Abduxuel's final breaths on his skin.

_He didn't want to die!_

He didn't want to…

His struggles ceased, mind and vision narrowing to one center point on the horizon. Gray, formless skies and endless waters merged and turned everything into so much haze he could no longer break through.

Above him, his two voices faded in and out of focus, a mirage, an illusion that took the shape of their bodies melded against each other and staring down at him as he fell further away with each breath.

Slower, the waters had crept up to his cheeks now. His breaths came as an afterthought.

Rin leaned towards him, closer than he had ever come in all the different ways he'd seen his image in his prison.

Then he vanished just as he neared the final distance, an impression of blue.

_ o_

And he'd taken the bounds of his prison with. The horizon line faded completely in all directions and the lukewarm waters no longer carried him, leaving him hanging in a void.

When had he breathed last? He gave a rattling inhale, then stopped, unable to remember why it was important to keep breathing.

Amaimon appeared above him, ancient eyes more tired than he'd seen them yet, the outline of his face disappearing in centimeters until only gold stayed.

l

His eyes closed to fading gold.

The dam broke. What had been a stream of water became a flood.

He knew who he was, mind shaping the words his mouth couldn't.

_I am Samael, King of Space and Time._

_And I don't want to go._

_I don't want to die._

_Not before I…_

But he was just so tired.

He gave in and sank beneath the quiet sea.

* * *

End Notes:

Oh noooooooo :O Who could have expected such a cruel cliffhanger from me?

:D


	10. Ouroboros

**Summary:**

Everything's different. Rin returns home, changed.

**Notes:**

Well, at least you guys don't have to suffer more cliffhangers for this fic because, with this chapter, it's FINISHED AYYYYYYYY

Also wanted to drop the link for anyone who might be interested ;) I've got an aoex discord server here: discord. gg/ATUEdtQ

(Just remove the space in the link!)

Open to all ships and there's about 80 ppl on so you guys are more than welcome to come scream about that newest manga chapter drop coming June 3rd lololol

Song of the Chapter:

Blinding by Florence and the Machine

* * *

How long would it take?

A warm breeze tickled at his cheek, the one Amaimon didn't have pressed to Rin's hair.

He hadn't been there for Abduxuel's death. He'd told Rin that, but he'd felt it like a wave that washed previous knowledge out and replaced it with a too-neat picture. It should have been cobbled together detritus, the after-effects of a storm.

When Samael died, what would get ripped away from him this time? What would replace it?

When Rin was taken, would he feel any change at all? If Father and Lucifer had their way and Rin lost his body, would he just join Father's flame or would he still be there, as all their hosts were, trapped in his own mind?

Would it matter when existence ended by Rin's unwilling hand? Or would Father decide in his fickle way that he wanted to keep his perfect vessel and become a permanent reminder of Amaimon's failure.

The earth beneath them spun its perpetual loop around the sun despite him wanting it to stop. He couldn't get his bearings when they seemed stuck in place and time moved too fast for him to keep up. Every second lost itself to the future. What was three days in the scheme of things?

What was a week?

One week since he'd been released from Samael's clock and found him with Rin.

Rin shivered, intermittent and between the tears that had quieted after their attempts to wake Samael failed, though wet heat still stuck Amaimon's shirt to his chest where Rin hid his face.

He'd _known_ they would fail, but, watching Rin lean down, he'd wondered if Lucifer had been right about something after-all. If Samael woke with a cure like true love's kiss, then of course it would be from a being as impossible as Rin.

It hadn't worked, not for either of them, and not for Samael, so he needed to move because Rin trusted him to know what to do. They couldn't stay there in the sunny clearing, but he didn't know where to go. His legs felt like they'd begun to grow roots into the earth without his say as Rin weighed him down.

Where was safe for Rin? The humans wanted him dead, and they especially would once they learned Lucifer was about to open the Gehenna gate. Some distant part of him noted his chest tightening with the thought, clutching Rin closer as if he was about to be attacked at any moment.

There was only one way to extend humanity's existence and prevent part of Lucifer's plan. Killing Rin would eliminate the perfect vessel Samael had prepared for Father and Lucifer would be forced to continue his efforts in building his own vessel.

Samael's humans were too efficient to look away from the obvious solution to their problems, and he didn't think Rin would be able to fend off both sides, not even with Amaimon's loyalty. He could see it, one lucky strike from a human, a weapon neither of them could parry or some ambush when they least expected, and that would be it.

By the point Rin died, Samael would already be gone. A tired blink and his gaze drifted to where Samael lay on the grass by their knees. Was it his imagination or had the breaths coming from Samael's lips slowed from the steady pattern he'd grown used to?

After the frantic dash through Gehenna without longer than it took Rin to sleep before the next inevitable fight, to come to the clearing they were in now made it as though each second stretched on forever. He'd begun timing the seconds by Samael's breaths, caught in his indecision.

The urge to scream that it wasn't fair drew hot lines along his veins, but what was fair? Lucifer's definition? Fair was a human concept and changed from one to the next. Just like he'd thought about love.

Was anything true anymore? He'd never been so off-balanced. Confusion tore the once solid bedrock he'd stood on to leave him scrambling for purchase in the resulting emptiness. The only thing that provided any sense of stability was the nephilim in his arms that had caused half his current problems.

Amaimon wanted to snort at the irony, but he'd grown numb without his notice, though he thought it must have happened when Lucifer had spoken his truths.

He'd grown numb. He'd grown numb, but a strange sensation prickled over his cheeks, hot, like the tears Rin had pressed against him, until he realized, heart dropping, that it was because they were one in the same.

Had he ever cried before?

Blinking scattered the tears in his eyes, blurring his vision as the sight of Samael warped. His chest felt tight, like a force exerted itself beneath his ribs and his breaths became harder to take.

Of course he'd cried in the past. From pain, from his vessel's natural reactions he could never fully suppress, his weakness breaking to the surface like a persistent weed. But those tears had been purely a physical response to stimulus, something a vessel would produce no matter what.

Nothing made sense anymore, so a demon, him, crying from something other than pain was just another way reality had twisted and refused to right itself. If nothing made sense, then it didn't matter if one more impossibility was added to the list.

A distant voice told him to stop, he was just prolonging the inevitable and wasting valuable time acting like a human. Sitting there in the dust wouldn't accomplish anything. Wallowing wouldn't prevent Samael- wouldn't prevent _Rin's_ death.

The voice sounded like Samael, poking and prodding him into action whenever he began to act like the worst parts of his aspect. Stuck, stagnant, entrenched in the past and as slow to move as one of his mountains.

His tears dried into sticky tracks. He hid his face in Rin's hair but couldn't look away from Samael. The one responsible for the upheaval in his mind was the only one who would have a solution. Samael wouldn't be caught in indecision if, through some strange turn, he were in Amaimon's place.

Samael would be up, searching for another path, taking stock of what resources they had available to them, and not just _sitting_.

They weren't dead yet.

Rin's breath hitched around a thick swallow and Amaimon felt his fingers spasm in their grip on his clothes as he made to speak.

"I have to find out what happened with everyone at home," he said, voice tight as an instinctive growl tried to break from Amaimon, "I have to let Yukio know. I have to see him."

Amaimon fought not to keep Rin from pulling out of his arms to stand, frowning at the trembling he could see. "Those humans will be after you. It's not safe."

It was an unnecessary caution. Rin was aware of the situation, but he also knew that nowhere was truly safe. So, if Rin wanted to see his human twin, then that's what they would do, and Amaimon would kill anyone who tried to stop them.

He stood too, body aching as if he were still under the effects of Lucifer's wards, and saw a wry smile put lines on Rin's face in answer to his statement. Then Amaimon looked down at Samael.

A beat.

Everything came to a standstill, the earth wrenched beneath his feet.

Green, its acid hue one he'd given up ever seeing again, speared into him from open eyes.

What was-?

Lips parted on a rasped breath and a constant pattern broke.

Samael sat up.

He couldn't get air into his lungs, had the wind picked up? Because a deafening typhoon rushed past his ears, ripping him into the center of its vortex.

What was happening? What was _happening?_

"Mephisto!" Rin dove to tackle Samael back to the ground, half-hysteric with the laughter bubbling out as he wrapped him in a fierce hug.

"You're awake! It worked, oh my god, it worked!" Rin laughed again, then, without hesitation, kissed Samael, slotting their mouths together like they'd been made for each other.

He'd begun crying, Amaimon could see the tears coming from beneath Rin's eyelids he'd squeezed shut with the kiss, but these weren't the desperate tears from before. These weren't from thoughts about an unsure future.

"Are you ok?" Rin said as he broke the kiss, pressing a flurry of touches to Samael's body and still seated in his lap, nearly vibrating with renewed energy, "are you healed?"

Healed. Was he healed? Amaimon's gaze drifted over the parts of Samael he could see like he was deep within his vessel, a secondary passenger. The rot had vanished like it had never been, just as it had for Samael the day Abduxuel had died. He'd healed.

He'd woken.

"Er," the stutter from Rin brought his gaze to rest on red-stained cheeks, bright with a flush he couldn't understand the source of, "oh man, do you even know what happened?"

"Shit," Rin flinched and started to move away from Samael, who'd only watched from impassive features and dilated pupils as if he were still asleep, unable to react, "you probably only remember being in your office before you got cursed. I'm an idiot, oh my god, kill me, please."

That last bit was whimpered as Rin scrambled from Samael's lap.

A hand snapped out to stop him, claws pricking red welts into the skin of his wrist until blood beaded and dropped.

Lips parted around fangs and a brittle rasp as Samael opened his mouth.

"_Don't._"

Rin froze, half raised off Samael and pupils flicking in his eyes as he licked at his own lips, unsure, "don't? I don't-"

His jaw closed and opened like Samael tested his vessel's movement, frown deepening as he furrowed his brows into a glare that cut Rin off.

"Do you know," Samael said, slowly, like he'd forgotten how to speak, and each word creaked from his throat, "how unbelievably frustrating it was watching the two of you fumble your way through Gehenna? You have no _idea_ the headache you both cause me."

The meaning hit Amaimon just as Rin stuttered and tried to curl back into himself, apparently having forgotten the hold keeping him by Samael until his thoughtless actions made him yelp when claws dug in deeper.

"You- you saw all that?" Rin said in a strangled voice, looking ready to bolt the instant Samael loosened the bruising pressure.

"Hmm, yes," Samael said, seeming to luxuriate in the drawn-out hum rumbling from his chest as he tilted his head back in a stretch that exposed the column of his throat.

"There was that little spat in the beginning," his gaze flicked to Rin's middle and a smile curved at his lips, "an _illuminating_ lesson on etiquette, and at some point, you made it to a hot spring."

Their whole journey from the start. If Samael remembered those instances, then he must have also seen the rest. Amaimon held still the few feet he'd made it from them, locked on the scene and incapable of following the instincts filling his body.

"Oh god," Rin whimpered as Samael's grin turned Cheshire-like. Then he inhaled a long breath, eyes shuttering, still not releasing Rin from his grasp, and shoved him into a graceless heap on the ground.

"Ah!" Rin didn't get much more than a startled gasp out before Samael made himself comfortable over his body.

"Mephisto!" The sound of his name had Samael bowing his head where he shadowed Rin and his features tightened with a flash of strain that Amaimon thought he imagined.

How much did he really remember? And, if he'd seen those scenes, had he seen the rest, too? Amaimon's heart plummeted, wrenched down by an emotion he couldn't place outside of a sourceless dread.

Had he seen the end?

Another purr rumbled from Samael, but his voice carried a strange note, "please, let me hear my name again."

He thought he could practically feel Rin's heart slamming to his ribs with the pace it sped at, the flush on his cheeks making it all the way to the tips of his pointed ears as he croaked out, "your name?"

"That curse," Samael's face warped, an ugly expression stealing his languid pleasure away and ratcheting Amaimon's heart rate up at the danger, "left me without a name, without anyone's names. Without any memories at all."

Shivering went through Samael and the danger melted beneath his skin with a controlled sigh. His hold gentled, though he traced a clawed thumb over the fluttering pulse in Rin's wrist.

"Dear Lucifer's curse," he said after a while, and hearing him speak that revelation cemented that Samael _had_ seen the end, "leaves you unable to move, trapped in a formless pool, void of any sensation and only able to blink and breathe and sleep."

It sounded like the worst form of torture to Amaimon. Almost like being without a vessel, aware but unable to interact with anything, and existence becoming more vicious than even the most horrifying pain a physical body could experience. Too long and it flayed at the mind.

Samael grinned, then, eyes crinkling as he pressed down on Rin, "I have been floating in my own personal hell for what feels like an eternity, and as king of time, trust me when I say I know the meaning of that word."

Shock reflected in Rin's eyes, and he'd gone mute from either Samael's actions or his words or both, Amaimon didn't know.

He watched as Samael bent to Rin, claiming his mouth in a kiss as he spoke, and interrupting each word to press their lips together until Rin was a blushing mess on the ground.

"I am going to thoroughly enjoy the pleasures of the flesh before I go anywhere near the Academy or its bureaucracy again." The purr was back in Samael's voice. One whose tone Amaimon recognized.

"You saved my life, Rin," Samael said, murmuring so that he brushed Rin's lips with every pass, "You did something no one has ever done before and taught me the definition of love I could never accept until now."

Good. Amaimon unfurled his fingers from the fists he hadn't realized he knotted them into, stepping back, gaze averted, in what _wasn't_ a retreat.

Rin was safe. Samael had survived. He'd done what he could, and now…

"Amaimon?"

He contained the urge to flinch at the hurt in Rin's call of his name, pulling at the roots that kept him stuck in place to take another step further.

Some force he couldn't resist had Amaimon looking anyway. It was to see the exact picture he'd known he would. Rin, half-propped on his elbow and staring at Amaimon like he had broken his trust.

Above Rin, Samael narrowed his eyes, the green piercing into him again before he could defend against it.

"Amaimon," his name came out alongside a warning growl in Samael's voice, "where do you think you're going?"

The question and tone had him bristling, a sneer curling his lip overextending fangs that made Samael stiffen and Rin turn wary.

"You survived," he started, forcing his words to stay even and cool when they left his lips, "I no longer owe you a favor."

A sharp breath from Rin, he ignored it, too, and the slow understanding growing in Samael. "Actually, you owe _me_ a favor, Samael."

Predatory calm overcame Samael's body but Amaimon didn't care, he couldn't stop him, not now that he was owed a favor of such magnitude.

"But I don't want anything," the words slipped out before he could catch up to them, forming from thoughts of the worth of a life and what he could possibly ask in exchange, steamrolling on the path he'd chosen.

Another step, the roots tugged harder as Rin leaned forward, his hand twitching where he'd curled it in the grass like he would raise it towards Amaimon.

"Those humans of yours were out for his blood," he said as if from far away, remembering the swarming ants with their vile weapons besieging Rin and a defenseless Samael in the alleyway, "don't let them touch him or I'll sink your precious continent into the sea."

His threat was only half-empty. It wasn't as if he had any claim on Rin, not like the one he could see on the verge of swirling into life around Samael.

He had one tie to Rin, and that was his declaration of loyalty. No other.

So, with everything he wanted to say finished, he could leave. An ache started in his chest whose source he tore to shreds before it could reach the surface.

Where would he go? The ache deepened, indecision halting him from taking himself from the clearing. In Gehenna, Egyn and Lucifer waited, unless they'd decided to open the gate from Assiah, but in Assiah were Rin and Samael.

The paths in front of him branched and died, each possibility worse than the last and he realized the ache had begun to stab with every beat of his heart. It hurt. Why did it hurt? He just had to leave. It was easy, he'd done it before.

Stop. Stop _thinking_. His hand raised, fingers poised to snap, to escape the stifling clearing anywhere that was as far from it as he could.

Fire seared into his skin, a hand gripping tight and preventing him from making the motion that would take him away. Had Rin set his flames on him? Amaimon dropped his gaze, as slow as before when he'd thought his limbs had rusted in place.

Blue didn't cover him, it was just Rin, fingers trembling in their tight hold and panting, that betrayed look back on his face.

"Why?" Rin gasped the question when he couldn't speak, to snarl a warning or even move his hand, "why are you leaving?"

Why? "Why would I stay?" The words left a tongue that felt numb in his mouth, and through lips that wouldn't convey the sharpness he'd wanted to, coming out void of anything.

"I don't understand." Now he'd made Rin upset again, the clenched fangs and sheen in his eyes triggering that emotion he'd begun to hate. More Guilt.

Movement jerked his attention to where Samael rose from the ground. His body wavered like he couldn't control it yet and the tightness in his face on pallid skin showed he hadn't recovered as completely as Amaimon had thought.

He almost tore his hand from Rin's when Samael set his claws in a delicate press to his pulse.

"What?" He hissed the question to Samael, trip-wire taut with the buzz of violence thrumming in his veins. He wouldn't be submitting to his whims anymore.

"There seems," Samael said carefully, and it heightened Amaimon's tension, being trapped by his touch and his gaze, "to have been some misconception."

"There's no misconception," Amaimon let a warning growl start in his chest and his claws ached, "you're no longer cursed, Rin won't go to Lucifer and Father. You don't need me and you can't keep me here, _Samael_."

Using his name brought another shudder to Samael that he ignored, about to just yank his hand free if they wouldn't let him go.

"Amaimon," Rin said in a low voice that dragged him from daring Samael to keep pushing at the subject as he returned to Rin, "why would you say that? You lo-"

"So what?" Amaimon snarled, heart thudding in panic at what Rin had almost said and ripping his arm back to his side. He shook, fangs extended as he clenched his hands into fists until blood ran down his fingers, replacing the retreating warmth from the absence of their touch.

Of all the subjects for Rin to bring up, it had to be the one he dreaded most. Now, he wouldn't be able to escape the confrontation. He couldn't pretend, and he knew Samael wouldn't, either.

They couldn't stop him, though, he'd thrown them off and could leave before he had to hear anything.

"I'm sorry, Amaimon," Samael cut in, startling him away another step. An apology? It didn't make sense! He darted his gaze between the two stares he'd been pinned under, as caught as if they still held him, while Samael kept speaking, "I've been an absolute demon, running away and expecting you to follow."

He'd run? Fury had Amaimon rearing back with a hiss, "what are you talking about? I don't understand. You never ran!"

In all the years he'd been in existence, Samael had courted challenge and thrived on complication, never satisfied with the mundane or status quo that most of the other Ba'al lived in. That aspect of his personality coupled with his power meant he'd never run from _anything_.

"I spent my existence in search of truth, when as it turns out, I'd been avoiding it this whole time." But the wry smile on Samael's face and his words said otherwise, washing out another pillar of reality Amaimon had leaned on like it was immaterial.

"And," Samael said, a light tease that sent Amaimon's hackles raising in defense, "there is the small fact that I owe you thanks for giving me my name back, which I can't do if you leave."

He'd done what? A whine tried to break from his mouth, strangled behind his fangs before he lashed out, "you said Rin did!"

"Yes, he did," the smile turned sly, "but am I not also Samael?"

_Samael_. Of course he was. Mephisto was just one of many names he'd chosen for himself throughout time. His claws flexed, digging new gouges into his palms as he tried to contain the weakness by bleeding it from inside.

"You," Rin said before hesitating and licking at his lips, "Amaimon, you heard what those two bastards said, didn't you?"

The insult towards Lucifer and Egyn had Samael's smile twitching while Rin continued, "how I was supposed to be carrying him and how they blamed you for their plan not working?"

Was it some trick question? Was he supposed to know the answer? He didn't!

He had to stop retreating, but he'd been cornered, backed up against an invisible wall he couldn't destroy.

"What's your point?" He felt like injured prey, unable to hide a mortal wound from advancing predators who'd scented his blood.

He couldn't stem the flow, every effort to shore up his walls failed the longer he didn't flee, but it was like the signals from his mind to his vessel had been interrupted and he couldn't unclench his fists.

Blue eyes looked at him beneath Rin's lashes, set in an expression that said he'd missed something important Rin tried to impart with a stare.

"They said that because they thought I fell in love with _you_, not Mephisto."

Intermittent tremors went through his body as memories of the earlier storm that had nearly destroyed his vessel sank a chill into his bones. Why would Rin bring up that particular point? Clearly they'd been wrong!

"You woke him up, you broke the curse!" He shouted the obvious fact before he could stop himself, wildly off-balance, out of control and desperate for his world to fall back into the worn grooves he'd always existed on.

"Well, they were partly right," Samael broke in, laughing with what sounded like self-deprecation at some irony or joke everyone seemed to be in on except Amaimon, "even I could see it, and I was still under leagues of denial it existed at all."

"See _what?_" Were they mocking him? Rin wouldn't-

"Amaimon," another burning touch laid to his blood-stained knuckles and he wilted at his name from Rin, strength sapped and will sanded down into dust, "I did fall in love with you."

"And," he startled, eyes wide on the sight of his other hand raised to Samael's lips, "it was you who broke the remaining chains of the curse."

_Oh._

But…

The words bled from his mouth, an acid confession he'd never wanted said out loud, "I'm not strong enough."

That was why Rin had been chosen by Samael, why Rin refused to play with him, and why Samael had allowed himself to have a completed claim with Abduxuel. As the second to last on the bottom of Gehenna's hierarchy of kings, Amaimon knew where he stood.

Rin growled then, flame flickering in his eyes while Amaimon stiffened to hide a recoil at the danger. "Seriously? Is this because of what that stupid shark wouldn't shut up about? I already said it's bullshit!"

Before Amaimon could think of how to unravel the intricacies of the unspoken rules that governed Gehenna's inner-workings in a way Rin would understand, Samael intervened.

"In part, yes, Rin," he said, cocking his head at the glare Rin shot him, humor evident in his tone, "but what dear Amaimon and many of our brethren have never picked up on, despite years of my attempts to show them, is there's more than strength when it comes to something having value."

"Duh," Rin sniffed, gripping harder to Amaimon's hand as he tried to slow the free-fall he'd entered at the explanation from Samael, "but I already told them, Amaimon's strong, too."

His head rang with their words, and now he wanted to run just to get time to think to avoid any more earth-shattering news dropped before he could handle it.

"Mm, yes, he is," Samael said in a murmur that had Amaimon's tattered pulse picking up in alert, "did I mention my favorite piece of your adventure?"

A moment later, he registered the warm breath to his hand and a gaze burning beneath dark lashes as Samael continued his rhetorical question, "watching you two utterly _devastate_ Father's armies."

He could see Rin preening from the compliment, and something fluttered in his chest at the pride Rin took and how far he'd come from the beginning.

The rest of him was caught up in the hypnotic stare from Samael and hint of fangs he could feel on the delicate skin of his knuckles.

"Yeah, we kicked so much ass," Rin said, a toothy grin widening across his face as if he were oblivious to the signs Samael had begun giving off.

"Have we sorted this all out, then?" Samael's question revealed he'd let his fangs drop, and Amaimon's breath hitched at the sight.

"You're not gonna leave, are you, Amaimon?" Rin said, concern overtaking his grin and almost working to distract Amaimon from the one curling against his fingers.

Amaimon dipped his chin in a slow nod, torn across the lingering doubts and trying to parse what Samael's next action would be.

He should have looked out for Rin.

Warm lips captured his, knocking the wind from his lungs where Rin pressed the hand he hadn't let go of between them until he could feel Rin's heartbeat through his ribs.

It was inexperienced, he noted in the back of his mind. Rin's nose bumped his cheek, fangs clacking to his as Amaimon stared into the blue veins he could see making patterns on closed lids.

Inhaling, Rin's scent filled his senses, surrounding him in that otherworldly-fire. His hand twitched in Rin's and his mouth parted, lips buzzing with sensation.

Then his hand shot up as Amaimon broke the stupor and sloughed off the last of his indecision.

Taking hold of Rin's jaw, Amaimon tilted it into a better position, licking into his mouth as his eyes shuttered. A purr rumbled through him, escaping between their lips whenever they opened for air

The kiss consumed him, every interrupted moment they'd had, all the times he'd been tormented by yet another unintentional tease Rin hadn't even known he was subjecting him to, the bloodlust that sang in his vessel after each fight, it all rushed through him to pour into Rin.

_Finally_.

"Finally." Samael's mutter had him cracking an eye open to see avarice drinking in the way Rin panted into his mouth.

Claws traced at the shell of his ear and down to tap at his artery, sending anticipation through Amaimon when they scrapped there.

"I think I almost broke the curse myself just out of the desire to strangle the both of you for the constant dancing around each other," he said as he moved behind Amaimon, nipping at the point of his ear to enhance his words.

Rin broke away, falling on Amaimon in a heated weight to press him up along Samael, "that wasn't my fault. I thought he was teasing me!"

Teasing? He glared at Rin, hand going to tug his head back by his hair as he ignored the startled yelp to bite bruises into his throat, growling, "I wasn't teasing. You kept running."

His answer was a breathy moan from Rin, red back on his cheeks at Amaimon's ministrations.

Hips twitched, Samael brushing at one of the coils of his tail where it flexed beneath his clothes, reminding him of one other very important piece.

"I," he began, rolling his hips to Rin's in a rough grind to let him know exactly how much he wasn't teasing, "am going to finish teaching you about your tail, now."

Two groans met his statement, though Samael's sounded frustrated again.

When he spoke, it had Amaimon arching back, chasing the light rhythm Samael kept shy of what he wanted as he bent to shadow him, "when you stepped from that hot spring, I'm not sure how he resisted pulling you straight back in by your tail."

At least it had worked on one of his audience, Amaimon grumbled internally, then a full-body shiver went through him as Samael drew the hand he still hadn't released up to cup his cheek.

In the next moment, Samael nuzzled against him, purr vibrating between their bodies and his other hand coming to rest over Amaimon's heart in a way that had it racing.

"Amaimon, touch me."

Yes, that was the plan. Amaimon untangled his fingers from Rin's hair to snap their clothes away, reveling in the bare skin sliding to his. It had the added benefit of getting Rin to stumble in surprise, pushing him back into Samael's embrace where Amaimon ground his hips, taking advantage of the situation.

"Ah!" He twisted to see Samael panting, the small cry and trembles a larger reaction than his actions warranted. Unless...

To test his suspicion, Amaimon freed his hand from Samael's and reached to grab his hip, bringing him forward in a hard press that drew blood where his claws pierced.

A broken whine he didn't think he'd ever heard from Samael was his answer, muffled into his shoulder.

"Mephisto, are you okay?" Rin parted the tangled strands of Samael's hair tickling at Amaimon, smoothing it out of the way to check his expression, "do you need us to stop?"

Amaimon snorted, unwinding his tail to wrap it around Samael's waist and jerk him closer from where he'd slumped, feeling the beginnings of pre-cum slick along his lower-back.

Samael let out another choked cry, clawing at him in an instinctive motion while Amaimon let go of his hip to find Rin's tail and _squeeze_.

"If he wants me to stop," Amaimon said above the twin shouts, "he should _make_ me."

"Don't," Samael said in a ragged gasp, growling as he moved with purpose to twine his tail with Amaimon's, "don't you dare stop or I will scream."

His breaths came faster at the pleasure winding along his tail from Samael's constrictive noose, turning the same torture on Rin and letting an open-mouthed grin form as he collapsed on him with a moan.

"Holy shit," Rin whimpered, pupils blown in clouded eyes and clutching at Amaimon's shoulders as if he could barely keep himself standing. He hadn't stopped rutting against Amaimon with desperate movements as he tried to get friction, his tail lashing in Amaimon's grip.

He swept his fingers over the short fur, digging into the base of Rin's tail to hear what other sounds he could elicit from that sweet mouth.

The litany of curses Rin stumbled through had his grin stretching as he took his time, savoring finally getting his hands on it and not about to let go until he'd mapped out every inch.

At his back, Samael managed to recover enough to run his hands down Amaimon's stomach so he could toy at his hips. Needle-tip claws prickled at delicate skin, nowhere _near_ as hard he wanted.

"Samael," Amaimon tilted his head to glare into gleaming eyes, hoping his impatience came through before he had to make threats.

"Go on, Amaimon," Samael purred with a slow glide of his tail to Amaimon's, rubbing his thumbs in circular patterns that brushed the jut of his hips with every pass, "I want to see how you teach Rin the joys of having a tail."

That, he could gladly do. Amaimon bit a kiss into Samael's mouth, pressing him closer with a hand knotted in thick purple hair and lapping at the blood he won free. When he turned back to Rin, he saw slit pupiled eyes locked on the warmth trickling down his chin and realized he had more to teach Rin than just the pleasure his tail could bring.

At the same time he unwound his tail from Samael's, Amaimon kissed Rin again, letting him taste Samael on his lips before nipping with elongated fangs.

By the time he pulled away, a trail of bloody saliva between them, Rin's eyes had glazed over and he'd gone limp in Amaimon's hold.

Samael reached to draw his thumb over Rin's bottom lip, the pad of it catching on a fang until new blood beaded to stain him further.

He watched, enraptured, as Rin flicked his tongue to catch the drop, teeth gently closing as he sucked at the intrusion.

How would he look with something larger filling his mouth?

Amaimon wanted to find out. But later. He needed to get his teeth around Rin's tail.

Plan determined, Amaimon pressed until Rin followed him to the ground, swaying as he kneeled in the grass over Amaimon's lap. Samael blanketed him again, a solid presence along his spine, one that kept trailing teasing touches to every part he could reach.

Looking up let him see the blue eyes Rin had fixated on him as he leaned to mouth at his neck.

Rin's breath came loud in his ears, hitching when he ran a claw in a line down each vertebrae to end at the soft fuzz of the base of his tail.

"Ah-Amai- Amaimon," Rin's voice sent his ears twitching, though it didn't stop him from the deliberate pressure he used on the sensitive nerves of his tail or the bright spots of red he bit open every time Rin healed.

"I don't know what I'm doing, I've never done anything like this before," the rush of words from Rin made him hum, a soft laugh from Samael echoing the amusement he felt.

"Takes on all of Gehenna and faces off with Lucifer himself," Samael murmured what he'd been thinking, getting an irritated huff from Rin at their teasing.

"That's totally different, and you know it," Rin said, though the continued roll of his hips to Amaimon's meant he wasn't going to let that hold him back.

He'd crossed his arms around Amaimon's shoulders, body shaking as he moved like he already rode him, and Amaimon wondered, dragging a firm fist over his tail and getting a stutter of Rin's motions, if he realized what the next step would be.

"You'll have to prepare him, Amaimon, it's his first time, after-all," Samael said into his jaw, and, by the angle he was at, Amaimon knew he would be staring straight into Rin's eyes.

Thinking about the ways he could get Rin to say his name as he drove him to the edge had Amaimon deciding he liked Samael's plan.

But that didn't mean he had to go through the same process.

Snapping his tail to Samael's thigh got him another shout and claws dug into his skin in retribution. He hissed his pleasure, bucking back against the hardened length he could feel jutting along him as he found the end of Rin's tail and rubbed the tip.

Amaimon licked at the column of Rin's throat to collect the last trails of red before catching his gaze and letting his jaw drop. His tongue curled across his fangs as they bristled to their full length right above the long fur of Rin's tail.

A fluttering pulse and Rin's pupils dilating showed he hadn't missed the small danger, but his length releasing more pre-cum to mix with Amaimon's on his stomach meant his intended effect had hit.

With his claws, he parted the tangles of white fur, a tightening of Rin's body letting him know he felt the bright pain at the sensitive tip whenever he tugged at knots. His tail he let coil down Samael's side, the rasp of scales a sign of his intent as he made his way to toy at Samael's entrance.

"I don't have anything for him, Samael," Amaimon said, enhancing his point with a prod of his tail as he idly scratched through the fur on Rin's.

"Of course you don't," came the exasperated sigh, though not before he'd heard Samael's heart thud at the mention of his name again.

Snapping brought out a bottle of unscented oil that Samael liked to use and Amaimon didn't waste time, floating it over to coat the palm not wringing small gasps out of Rin with every brush through his fur.

Anticipation had slowed Rin's movements, his complete attention on where Amaimon let his hand hover over the point their hips met.

A breath to let them squirm, Samael shifting behind him, and, just as Rin opened his mouth to speak, Amaimon acted.

"Ah!" He grinned around the tail he'd twined his tongue to as he worked his slicked palm over his and Rin's lengths, pumping them together at the same time he sucked hard to bring a second cry from Rin.

"You- _hah-_ utter imp," Samael said between panting breaths, jerking forward every time Amaimon thrust his tail until he gave in, pressing his forehead to the back of Amaimon's neck as he clutched to his shoulders.

With himself prepared, Amaimon moved to Rin, keeping his tail firmly occupied in his mouth as he swapped hands to trace over the swell of Rin's ass while he kept up the pace.

Rin jolted when he circled his rim with a clawed finger to spread the oil, but he didn't give him time to think about it and plunged in, feeling him tighten on instinct at the intrusion. His tail trembled, mirroring the way Amaimon stretched him, and pushed down to block his airway.

Unwinding his tongue, Amaimon forced Rin's tail from his throat, though he felt resistance until Rin must have realized how far he'd been shoving it and grew panicked through his arousal.

"Sorry!" Rin yelped, tail flicking to the side.

Coughing from the abrupt ability to breathe again didn't prevent Amaimon from glaring at Rin for trying to pull away. He quirked his fingers and Rin loosed a broken moan, shoving back on him to chase the sensation as he forgot his concern.

Samael laughed again between gasps, his words coming out with much less of his usual composure, "trust me when I say he can handle much more than that, Rin."

Trust him, hm? He thrust his tail harder, stunning Samael and sending him back down to remind him it wasn't _Amaimon_ who had to handle more this round.

"Amaimon, please, pleas-ah!" Rin's whimpers drew him away from tormenting Samael to the trembling mess Rin had become in his lap. A flush had spread from his face down his chest and he looked achingly hard where he ground himself against Amaimon.

It was enough. He could continue getting his retribution for the teasing Rin had subjected him to for an entire week another time, multiple times. For now, he wanted to feel Rin come apart with him inside.

He reached over his shoulder to Samael's head and forced it up by the hair, grinning in a baring of fangs at Rin, "watch him, Samael."

Muffled moans answered him as he released Samael, removing his fingers from Rin and lifting him by his hips as he lined himself up. Then he pressed in, dropping Rin steadily and purring at the tight heat enveloping him despite the preparation, Rin's natural healing already working.

The overwhelmed expression and silent scream on Rin's face made him want to devour him whole. He settled for bucking up to seat Rin fully and tear a verbal scream from him, tasting it on his lips when he captured them in a hard kiss.

At the same time, he curled his tail inside Samael and pressed to the sensitive point he'd been just brushing up until then.

A guttural cry and Samael came in a jerk of his hips to Amaimon's spine. He could practically feel the glare being turned on him for the surprise.

"Should I stop, _Samael_," he said in another purr against Rin's lips, letting his tail begin to slide out.

"No," Samael growled in a warning bite to his shoulder, making Amaimon hiss and grip harder to Rin, though he didn't move yet, "just know that I will be paying this back ten-fold, _Amaimon_."

It wouldn't be fun if he didn't.

"Hm, okay, Samael," Amaimon said, humming around a sly smile as he thrust to that point again and heard him grit his teeth against a sound, "if you say so."

Fingers slid beneath the base of his tail, collecting the trails of Samael's release and spreading it to his entrance. Amaimon nearly let Samael continue, imagining being filled as he had Rin and spreading his thighs to get more of the touch.

Not this time. He took a hand from Rin to search until he found Samael's length. Just running his thumb over the slit got him the expected reaction.

"Nng-ah!" Samael tensed, tightening around his tail in delicious pressure Amaimon rewarded with another swipe of his thumb to the oversensitized head.

"Maybe next time when you can last, Samael," he crooned, enjoying the frustrated snarl for his mocking. Vicious claws sank into his sides, but Samael subsided, thighs bracketing Amaimon as he rutted his length to him despite the overwhelming feeling it must have caused.

With that taken care of, he could focus on Rin.

He'd begun squirming, impatience stealing over his features and tail lashing in the grass behind him, blue flickering like an afterimage.

"Is it too much Rin?" Amaimon said, turning Rin's words back on him and almost breaking the vaguely concerned expression he'd masked himself with when a growl was his answer.

Drawing Rin up until his head just breached his rim, he held him there, asking, "do _you_ need me to stop?"

Flames warped Rin's pupils and claws dug furrows in Amaimon's arms where he clung with a sharp snarl at his teasing.

"_Amaimon_."

His name sounded _good_ on Rin's lips.

Amaimon jerked him down on the next breath and delighted in the indignant shout he tore free as he began pounding up into Rin.

Losing himself in the rhythm, he finally submitted to the pulse singing in his veins. The instincts he'd been holding at bay to enact his torment drove him to take as much of Rin and Samael as he could, greedy for more.

When his next impulse arose, Amaimon listened, yanking Rin forward by his wrist to sink his fangs deep and getting a savage cry.

Blood sluiced down his chin as he let his tongue slide to the rapid pulse in Rin's artery to gather as much as possible until Rin jerked loose.

Rin didn't give him time to wonder what he'd do, hand going to the back of Amaimon's head to bring him into a kiss that felt like fire poured down his throat and into his lungs.

When Rin pulled back, Amaimon saw that the feeling had been literal, blue fire curling with each exhale to burn the blood into ash.

"Rin, please," Samael said in a voice carrying desperation as he grasped for Rin, "please, let me feel your flames again."

Was Samael _begging?_

Suddenly, Samael's request sounded like the best idea he'd ever heard, needing to feel those dangerous flames surround him in their pyre he'd almost been destroyed by. He rewarded it with another punishing curl of his tail to see how loud Samael could get. Maybe he could get him to scream again.

Hot blood dribbled to his skin when Samael must have bit his lips to keep his screams back. Oh well, Amaimon would just have to up the ante.

Thrusting deeper, he filled Samael with more of his tail, stretching him with the coils as he refocused on thoughts of Rin's flames.

Would Rin-?

An inferno sent his heart stuttering when he looked at Rin, caught beneath a greater predator as he stared down with Gehenna flame in his eyes and trailing embers over his body each time Amaimon slammed into it.

Then he smiled and the embers ignited.

He might have screamed, but it was lost in the rush of fire, a vortex consuming him as Rin took control of his movements and rocked his hips over Amaimon.

Just like Rin's awakening, Amaimon burned on the edge of true damage, feeling like he suffocated in a sea of blue.

Samael had gone taut behind him, his scream swallowed, or maybe he'd been unable to scream at all, choking on it and lost in the sensations to his vessel.

Rin forced his head to the side to drag Samael forward, taking his mouth in the same searing kiss he'd laid on him and Amaimon froze at the sight. Rin kept moving, drawing blood from Samael and burning it from him and then doing it all over again when he healed.

Another energy swirled from Rin that Amaimon almost missed in the fire, blinking, dazed, until he recognized Rin's intent.

"_Mine._"

_Yours. _

Amaimon moaned as Rin sank his claim into them, losing his rhythm as he blindly fucked into him and Samael. Pleasure coiled in his gut and a claim he'd never expected to feel flooded his vessel with energy until he thought he would shake apart at the seams.

A beat, and a second claim caressed in a tentative press to his core. Amaimon gasped, mouth gaping, before jerking to see Samael watching him from beneath ragged bangs, face flushed and panting as Rin nosed against his throat.

He let the million clamoring voices and doubts in his mind burn in Rin's flame, allowing Samael's claim to snap into place like stars scattering into constellations.

"Amaimon," Samael spoke, voice a wretched rasp, "_please_."

His meaning rattled through Amaimon and he broke a second later, laying his own claim in a solid bedrock that completed the bond.

It was too much, his pleasure crested as he came, crying out before he pulled Rin towards him to bite deep into his shoulder.

Snarling met his ears, then sharp pain lanced through him with Samael's second release. Fangs worried into his muscle as Amaimon groaned against Rin, eyes shutting, though the light of his fire made it meaningless.

The flames flared into a bonfire that whited out his vision as Rin came in hot trails to his stomach, riding out his release in a frantic motion of his hips to Amaimon's until he'd satisfied himself, slowing just as it began to be overwhelming.

With each rapid beat of Rin's heart that evened out, he let his fire absorb back into his body. A final, long exhale and the clearing fell silent except for their panted breaths.

Rin slumped, strings cut and head bowing to rest his forehead to the shoulder not occupied by Samael's, wet heat puffing against Amaimon's skin as he cooled from the heightened temperature he'd been at.

Two completed claim bonds glowed under his second sight, stunning him just as much as the situation he'd found himself in.

Purring started up, though it took him a moment to place the source. Samael had begun a soft rumble he felt through his ribs, startling him into his own. Hands broke from their cruel grip in his sides to become a warmth where he crossed them around Amaimon's waist.

Was Samael hugging him? Amaimon didn't get a chance to marvel at the strange affection because Rin took up his own purr, nuzzling further to Amaimon's neck and making himself comfortable.

"You're right," Rin murmured, "it does feel nice, when you accept it."

Opening his eyes in a dazed blink, Amaimon tried to place what Rin was talking about. Then he remembered the hot spring and Rin's efforts to understand a claim, ducking his chin to scent out the way theirs mingled together.

Something settled in his chest, a final block he hadn't realized was there crumbling with the knowledge that they'd not only accepted, but wanted his claim.

"It does," Samael spoke in agreement, his inscrutable tone making Amaimon's brows scrunch as he searched for what emotion hid beneath it.

"It's not your fault," Rin said before he could place it, and the growl that darkened his voice had him frowning.

"I meant it," Amaimon lifted his head to look at Rin, still not understanding, "I'm happy with this now, but that bastard had no right."

His breath stuck in his lungs, eyes widening and feeling Samael still at his back.

"If what you had before was enough for you two then that's your business, not his."

Abduxuel. They were talking about Abduxuel.

Amaimon didn't know how to feel, but he thought it might be similar to whatever emotion had marked Samael.

Silence answered Rin's statement, and Amaimon wondered if Samael would acknowledge it after so long without a word to say his twin concept had ever existed since he'd died.

"In a sense," came the slow words, raising the hackles on Amaimon's vessel at hearing Samael accept any mention of Abduxuel, "there is no right or wrong amongst the Ba'al."

There wasn't. Not really. Not when right and wrong were determined by power, anyway. Amaimon wasn't sure which he preferred, Rin's definition or the one he'd lived by his entire existence.

"It's still bullshit," Rin muttered, huffing to send the stray hairs not stuck to his face fluttering as he glared at the scenery in lieu of Lucifer.

Samael chuckled, hand leaving Amaimon's middle to stroke over Rin's cheek, "it is that, too."

Rin flinched as Samael tapped a claw to him, wrinkling his nose with confusion.

"But this is hardly the place for that sort of conversation," he said as his grin turned wry and Amaimon watched red return to Rin's face for a reason he couldn't fathom, baffled by the string they followed, "sometime when we aren't sitting in a field in the middle of nowhere, hm?"

Ah, he understood. Snorting lightly, Amaimon lifted Rin, slipping from his body and ignoring the hiss his sudden actions incurred to set him down. His tail he withdrew from Samael in the next moment as he considered if it would be worth it to snap it against his thigh again.

The brush of Samael's thumb over his belly held the impulse at bay, the warmth there spreading to the rest of his body and leaving him languid, comfortable.

"So, now what?" Rin said as he leaned back on his palms, staring between him and Samael, "we go home, right?"

Going home meant Samael would return to his human duties and distractions and Rin to those humans Amaimon vaguely cared to remember. He fought the urge to pout, already knowing he'd follow wherever they chose to go.

"We can't avoid it forever," Samael sighed good naturedly, running a hand through his bangs and frowning when they caught in a tangle, "I can only imagine the paperwork that's piled up in my absence."

"And homework," Rin echoed his sigh as he dropped his head, "Yukio's gotta have so much stuff waiting for me, I just know it."

His head jerked up, blue eyes blinking owlishly, "oh god, this is going to be so weird to explain to everyone."

It got a snicker from Samael. Amaimon gave up trying to parse their concerns, snapping his fingers to bring out a sucker while he waited for them to finish.

"Yes, well, I have always been greedy," Samael said, "something they should have no trouble understanding."

What the worms understood mattered about as much to Amaimon as it ever had, which was nothing, but at least Rin didn't appear too bothered by their opinions and Samael only ever pretended to care.

Rin flicked his tail in the grass and he seemed to become aware of his own body, a grimace turning his lips down as he stared at one of the drying stains on his skin.

"Can we get cleaned up now?" The expected concern about cleanliness from Rin had Amaimon snapping them clean and into their clothes without a thought. It wasn't until he felt Samael shift behind him that he remembered he was awake, not reliant on Amaimon anymore. His ears twitched, fighting not to bow forward as he waited for Samael's response to his overstepping.

"I had wondered, once I realized you weren't figments of my imagination and that I existed at all," Samael began, breath brushing Amaimon's neck to send his hair raising, "what you were changing when you did that but nothing seemed altered after."

Oh, this was good, and Samael wasn't upset. Amaimon felt his mouth lift in the beginnings of a smirk at Rin when he ducked his head, tail suddenly curling to his body as if abashed.

"You didn't hear that part?" Amaimon said with deliberate ease, though it was interesting to know Samael missed parts of the journey. If he hadn't seen that conversation, what else had he missed? "Rin was very insistent that you have your dignity, or- what was it you said, Rin?"

Grumbling and Rin glaring at him beneath his bangs was his answer, but he could feel Samael's contained laughter through where they pressed together and continued, "ah, something about not wanting to be the one to tell him why he looked like shit when we woke him up, right?"

"I see," Samael said, voice even and covering his amusement as he hooked his chin over Amaimon's shoulder to grin at Rin, "another thing I'll have to reward you two for."

Would that be before or after his punishment for the teasing Amaimon had done? He tongued his fangs, already anticipating the future play.

The hand at his middle tapped in a brief metronome before Samael shifted and stood, warmth leaving with him, "now, I think it's time to stop avoiding the inevitable and return home."

Rin cocked a smile at them, and it seemed like the lines of tension he'd carried during the journey melted away.

Amaimon felt lighter looking at him, at Samael, standing with crossed arms and under his own power.

He joined Samael at his side, close enough that he could feel his heat, and waited for Rin.

* * *

"Are we all ready? Tails tucked in tight?"

Rin glanced on automatic to his tail where it flicked by his feet at Mephisto's question, then shot a look at Amaimon, rolling to his feet and opening his clothes to hide his tail again. The suspiciously innocent stare he got back had him shaking his head as he rebuttoned his shirt, tail safely wound up.

He had a sudden realization that his future would involve more attention paid to his tail than he'd ever expected in the time he'd had it. Not that he'd be complaining.

"I'm ready," Rin said, dusting his hands on his pants as anticipation put new energy in his veins.

They were going home. He'd succeeded. He'd saved Mephisto despite everything, and now he could get back, find Yukio and tell him it was ok, he'd made the right call.

A giddiness filled the smile he didn't fight off his face and the weird urge he kept getting to purr sent sporadic bursts of the soft sound through his chest when he came to brush up along Amaimon.

Amaimon pressed his nose to Rin's hair just as the snap from Mephisto came and took them away.

When Rin blinked through the minor disorientation of travel, his heart gave a pang. There before his eyes was the entrance to the academy grounds.

It was surreal, like looking in on a world trapped behind a pane of glass or a TV screen. The sounds of life and the people, students going to class like it was just another day and completely unaware of the earth-shattering week Rin had just been through, didn't feel real.

Looking at Mephisto, he saw a broad grin and his eyes crinkling in that expression Rin knew meant he was genuinely happy as he drew in a deep breath.

The sight made Rin's heart thud, an emotion welling like the energy of the claim that surrounded them he couldn't take his eyes from.

He'd had a gradual revelation, somewhere along the journey in between learning what it meant to be a demon and about Mephisto, Amaimon, the other kings and the past they'd come through.

It was easy to Rin. As easy as drawing the sword had been, in the beginning, and just as life-changing. Except this revelation came with emotions he could bask in for the rest of his life and never get tired of. It fit right into place, slotting in like the feeling of coming home.

"So, where are we going?" Rin said before his thoughts could dissolve into complete mush.

"We're going to my office," Mephisto said, flipping his hand out in a flourish, his hat poofing into existence. He put it on, sliding his fingers to the brim over now smirking eyes.

"And we're going to walk," Amaimon sighed, apathetic gaze wandering between the people around them as he let the sucker clack against his teeth.

"Yes," came the bright response, Mephisto moving to lead, "I feel like stretching my legs."

If Mephisto wanted to have fun moving under his own power, then Rin wouldn't be stopping him. He shared a look with Amaimon, shrugging and following along.

Besides, "I guess after running like, who knows how far in Gehenna, we can walk the rest of the way."

Amaimon's lips curled in amusement around his sucker and Mephisto let out another snicker.

Being able to walk without having to watch for the next ambush or run for hundreds of miles had Rin's body itching to move, his tail tightening with the urge flick restlessly.

Around them, he started hearing whispers as the students they passed recognized Mephisto.

He heard the rapid tick of a nearby heartbeat picking up a second before a voice rang out across the main courtyard.

"Rin?"

Two more heartbeats fluttering their pace joined the first just as Rin recognized the voice.

"No way. No way!"

Shima stood, mouth hanging open on his shout. Beside him, Konekomaru and Bon stared, stunned in place.

"Go on, Rin," Mephisto said with quiet humor, nudging him, "let's greet the homecoming party."

His prodding jolted Rin into action, a wide smile breaking onto his face as he laughed and ran to his friends.

"Hey guys, miss me?"

Bon looked like he'd swallowed a live fish and Konekomaru had paled as if he'd pass out any second.

"You're alive," Bon whispered, the words cracking out.

"Hah, yeah," Rin said to the disbelief he could see them working through, crossing his arms and giving them time.

"You're alive!"

Before Rin could reply, Bon grabbed him in a tight hug that felt more like an attack and was over just as quickly. Rin watched him turn on his heel, shouting, "I need to get Mr. Okumura!"

Yukio. Rin's heart skipped as he watched Bon run from the courtyard.

"Oh man," Shima said next, voice wavering, "is that Sir Pheles?"

At Rin's back, two energy signatures moved to flank him and he saw panic enter Konekomaru's eyes when he caught sight of Amaimon.

"In the flesh, Mr. Renzo," Mephisto answered.

"Oh thank god, we're gonna live," Shima whimpered with tears of exaggeration, "you have no idea how happy I am to see you, Sir Pheles."

Oh, it was like that, huh? Rin rolled his eyes at seeing Shima clearly hadn't changed.

"Rin," the soft call of his name brought Rin back to see a shaky smile and eyes filled with real tears on Konekomaru, "you did it. I'm glad, I'm so glad."

His grin softened as Rin uncrossed his arms.

Then Konekomaru's smile wobbled and he began to cry. Rin folded him into a hug, patting his back as he waited for the hitched breaths to even out.

"Thanks, Koneko," he said after a while.

Konekomaru pulled back, sniffling between disbelieving laughs. He scrubbed his palms to his eyes beneath his glasses to wipe the tracks away.

"Does this mean we're not going to war anymore?" Konekomaru said to Mephisto, hesitant and worrying at his lip.

War? Rin's mood dampened at the stress lining Konekomaru's face.

Mephisto just tutted, finger waving, "let's save that talk for when we reach my office, yes?"

Somber nods answered his cheer, which he blithely ignored.

"Rin!" The call of his name for the second time took his attention.

Rin knew without looking who he'd see.

Blue eyes met his in a wide stare from a stricken expression.

Yukio, frozen in place with his fists clenched at his sides while Bon panted like he'd run the whole way to bring him back.

What would he do? Rin's mind flashed to the chaos of the alleyway he'd last seen Yukio in. Yukio and Kuro. The memory of Kuro guarding their escape had a pang running through his chest, claws going there as if he could press it away.

His motion caused a flinch in Yukio, taking him from the odd ache he couldn't assuage to focus on the present.

By the way Yukio didn't seem to be moving any time soon, Rin would have to be the one to take the first step.

At that thought, he crossed the distance. Yukio started, tensing like he was caught between fight or flight, but Rin was already there.

"Yukio," he said, keeping his voice low past his smile and still hearing it make Yukio's heart stutter anyway, "I made it home, we woke him up."

"Rin," Yukio's voice broke on his name, teeth clenching. He trembled, once, twice, a quake through his whole body. Then his eyes welled with tears and a wrenching sob came from Yukio as he jerked his head down, hiding.

Rin dragged him into his arms, ignoring the cut-off gasp and gripping tight.

"It's ok, Yukio," he said, closing his eyes and tucking Yukio's head to his shoulder where he felt the fabric wet with tears, "it's ok."

After another long moment, Yukio unthawed, bringing his hands to Rin's back to hold there and relaxing by glacial increments.

He drew a long breath through his nose to scent Yukio out, refamiliarizing himself until he felt settled, too. When he opened his eyes again, the glow of his claim swirled like a shroud over Yukio, and he knew without looking it was the same for Bon, Koneko, and Shima.

Even if Shima was an ass, he was Rin's ass, he huffed with an internal grumble.

Shifting in his arms took him from thinking about his most difficult friend as Yukio composed himself with a last shuddering exhale.

"Excuse me," Yukio said, embarrassed about the show of emotion, and stepped away to acknowledge Mephisto with a nod.

"It's good to have you back, Sir Pheles," the hints of his momentary break shone in the red fading from his cheeks, "do you have anything you need from me?"

"I'll be holding a brief run down for everyone in my office, Mr. Okumura," Mephisto said, getting back on track, "if you'll go gather Ms. Moriyama and Ms. Kamiki and bring them there, that would make this much more efficient."

"Of course, sir," Yukio bowed, glancing back at Rin before excusing himself and pulling out his phone.

Now then," Mephisto beamed at them as Rin returned to his side, "come, we have a show to steal."

Gloved hand raised, Mephisto snapped, whirling them away. A cloud of pink smoke erupted around them, billowing out as Rin watched Mephisto throw open the familiar doors to his office.

"Knock, knock," he said, bright and loud around the gasps from the exwires.

Rin steadied Konekomaru from his stumble just as two other gasps echoed from further in the room.

The cloud of smoke, sparkles, and bits of confetti dissipated to show Shura and a man Rin hadn't met before where they'd risen to their feet at the surprise.

"They made you director, I see," Mephisto purred at Shura, "the position looks good on you, but I'll be taking my seat back, dear."

She didn't get time to respond as he strode across the carpeted floor, cape flaring behind him, to tip his hat at the man, vanishing it in another exaggerated cloud of pink smoke, "and such an esteemed exorcist to oversee you- hello, Sir Lewin."

Shura started, straightening as she scanned them, then her wide-eyed gaze met Rin.

"You can have the seat back," she said, rushing around the table and past Mephisto without another word.

Strong arms wrapped Rin in a bear-hug he returned immediately, another piece of himself calming.

"You brat," Shura whispered, "you're gonna have me as gray as Shiro if you keep doing this shit."

"Ah-hah, yeah, well, we'll match then, I guess," Rin said, getting a sharp laugh from her as she ruffled his hair. Her hands went to his shoulders, pushing him back to look at him with a wry smile.

"They got hair stylists in Gehenna? It looks good, kid," she determined, flicking a strand and releasing him to prop her hands on her hips.

"It's a long story," Rin said, gaze going to Amaimon and then Mephisto, wondering what he could even say to begin to explain the journey.

"Awesome! I can't wait to hear it," an unfamiliar voice interrupted his attention, the unwashed scent of the person it belonged to making him wrinkle his nose a second later.

Shaggy hair in a fringe that covered his eyes and a wide smile stretching over a stubbled chin had Rin wondering how the man could possibly be an exorcist.

"Wow, it is fascinating to meet you!" The man said, peering at Rin from Shura's side and reaching out to take his hand in an energetic shake.

"I think you mean fantastic," Rin got out, thrown by the personal touch and exuberance.

"That too!"

Growling stole the man's focus enough that Rin could take his hand back, wondering if it was rude to wipe it on his pants and then doing it anyway because he didn't think the guy was even looking at him anymore.

"And Amaimon, King of Earth!" He chirped, though at least he didn't decide to try shaking Amaimon's hand, the low growl having kept him at bay, "Mr. Okumura told me you'd involved yourself."

Narrowed eyes and a sneer was his answer from Amaimon.

"Yes, it's quite the tale, Mr. Lewin," Mephisto cut in, ushering everyone with a broad gesture, "why don't we all get comfortable so I can fill you in?"

Good. Rin's hackles soothed as Lewin stepped away from Amaimon.

He moved so that he pressed along Amaimon, calming further, then they went to join Mephisto behind his desk.

"Ah, that feels good," Mephisto sighed as he settled into his chair, that smile that crinkled his eyes to slits back on his face as he wiggled in place.

A sly expression went to Shura once he'd folded his hands on the surface of the desk, "thank you for keeping my seat warm, Miss Kirigakure."

Shura rolled her eyes with a scoff under her breath, crossing her arms and visibly restraining herself from a retort.

"Where to start," Mephisto hummed, deliberating for his impatient audience in a way that would have had Rin shrieking at him to hurry it up once upon a time.

"How about with the Gehenna gate currently blocked by Lucifer?" Lewin said pointedly, though he did it in the same cheerful tone he'd greeted Rin with earlier.

The mood sobered, Rin fighting a scowl at the mention of Lucifer.

"Hm, yes, that is a problem, one we'll have to deal with carefully once it comes to light that I didn't perish." Like a chessmaster setting up his board, Mephisto sharpened.

His eyes glinted, and a readiness steeled inside Rin at the sight, falling back into the mentality he'd adopted in Gehenna.

"And how much time do we have?" Lewin asked, leaning forward until Rin saw his eyes under his fringe. They reminded him of Mephisto's.

"Well," Mephisto said as his gaze drifted to Shima, sending him shrinking with everyone's attention on their resident Illuminati spy, "that depends on Mr. Renzo."

"Hey, uh, don't look at me!" Shima yelped in a flurry of his hands as if to ward them off, "I haven't gotten anything, I swear!"

Not that Rin believed him, but he'd let Mephisto deal with sussing the truth out of Shima.

Mephisto held Shima's nervous gaze while he sweat in obvious anxiety. Another few beats and he broke the impasse, fangs peeking in a smile behind his hands before he sat back in his chair.

"We have three days grace time before Lucifer drops the barrier," he said without preamble, dropping the bomb on the room and watching the fallout.

"How do you know that?" Shura demanded.

Here it came. Rin chewed his cheek behind his lips, sharing a quick glance with Amaimon. His friends had taken his new look in stride, but how would they take the way he'd gotten it?

"The king of light was the one who laid the curse down," Mephisto said as if it were obvious. He brought his knuckles to his cheek, resting on the arm of the chair and tapping the fingers of his other hand to the desk surface.

"Through the arduous efforts of these two darlings," at Mephisto mentioning him, another happy flutter went through Rin, and he just managed not to purr out loud again, "in which they went to each of the Ba'al to gather information, they made it to Lucifer himself to find the cure."

Rin risked looking at his friends. They'd leaned in, drawn by the story. Lewin most of all sat at the edge of his seat, utterly focused like a hound on a scent with his eyes bright where they peeked from his bangs.

"The cure to Briar Rose Syndrome?" Lewin breathed the question, hands gripping together in a spasm where he'd bent them on his knees.

"The very same," Mephisto's smirk widened, looking like the cat with both cream and canary.

"The sole cure to the curse," he said with relish obvious in his voice when it caused his captured audience to tense, then he spread his hands wide and revealed the cure, "is true love's kiss."

Silence tore the wind from the room until all Rin heard were stumbling heart beats and saw eyes darting between the three of them.

Then the glances settled on Amaimon.

Chaos erupted.

"Demons don't love," Lewin said, and a growl threatened to rise in Rin's chest until Lewin's face cracked into a manic smile, "they lack empathy, humanity, morality, you name it, they're missing it!"

His scowl returned at how Lewin talked about demons. Only the way Mephisto sat like he had everything under complete control kept Rin from telling Lewin exactly where he could shove his statements.

"What?" Bon yelped, hand going to his hair as he went back to looking like he'd swallowed a fish.

"Did the fairy tale come first or the curse?" Konekomaru muttered to himself rapid-fire, devolving into unintelligible strings of thought Rin couldn't track over the rest of the shouting.

"Wait," Shima added to the cacophony, "does this mean Lucifer- there's no way. That guy?"

"Rin?"

He shrugged at the dawning realization in Shura's eyes, "I told you, it's a long story."

"I'll say," Lewin grinned, laughing incredulously, "this revolutionizes _everything_ we thought we knew about demons!"

"You don't think he's kidding?" Bon found his voice, jabbing a finger towards Mephisto as he forgot his normal rigid politeness towards authority figures, "what are the parameters of the curse? How would he even recognize it in the first place?"

"So then the earth king woke Sir Pheles from the curse," Konekomaru half-said, half-asked as if he still couldn't wrap his mind around the concept.

Shura began slowly shaking her head, gaze fixed on Rin but not speaking.

"Yes," Mephisto drawled, teasing the word, and Rin was glad he wasn't on the opposite side of it because he would have been frothing at the mouth in frustration at the deliberate stalling.

Lewin just seemed more excited. His knees bounced, grin growing to shark-like proportions as he asked, "yes, the earth king broke the curse? Or yes, the light king also fell under the curse and survived?"

"It was just as shocking to me, too, I know," Mephisto said, waving off the excitement in a flippant motion, "dear Lucifer is full of surprises, I didn't think he had it in him."

"And he didn't think I had it in me either, by the time we reached his domain in Gehenna," mock annoyance tinged Mephisto's voice. Rin marveled at the way he took the insanity of their meeting with Lucifer and compacted it into such a simple form, "hence the three-day grace period he gave to Rin before he drops the gate."

"What can we expect when that happens?" Lewin said, pressing on from one point to the next, "large numbers of the demons in Assiah vanished- we're assuming to Gehenna. Will we see those through the gate?"

Oh. Rin hadn't realized, although if Lewin was talking about the demons he thought he was, then…

"Ah, so _that's_ where the horde came from," Mephisto said as if it had just occurred to him, blinking his eyes in an exaggerated expression of surprise, "well, we won't have to worry about that mess coming through the gate."

"_Why?_" The question came out like Lewin said it with his entire being. Rin wasn't sure how his eyes weren't glowing, beginning to wonder if something was wrong with him, or if he maybe had some kind of demonic heritage he just couldn't sense yet.

"Because Father's armies were utterly _extinguished_," the dark undertone to Mephisto's voice and the remembered battle sent a tremble through Rin. It had been Mephisto's favorite part of their journey, and, now that he thought about it, it was Rin's too.

When would his next chance to fight like that come? Maybe Amaimon, or, Rin's gaze zeroed in on Mephisto and his heart skipped, maybe _he_ would fight with Rin.

"What do you mean, extinguished?" Shura finally spoke, taking Rin from what it would be like to cut loose with Mephisto and Amaimon, "how?"

"How?" He parroted back, "well, the half Amaimon crushed will be taking some time to find new bodies, and-"

Green eyes met Rin's and another smirk lit Mephisto's face, "-the half Rin incinerated won't be coming back at all."

So, he had killed them permanently. Rin didn't feel the expected sadness at that confirmation, but a familiar low-burn anger at Satan for forcing the demons of the horde into conflict with him grew instead. It was over and done with and Rin wouldn't be wallowing, he'd just use it as one more reason to take Satan down when they next met.

When he refocused, Rin saw Lewin biting hard into his bottom lip like he was trying to force back the giddiness that shone through anyway. Wasn't he supposed to be a little more worried about the barrier dropping? If he bit any harder he'd bleed.

"Then it'll just be whichever demons happen to be on the other side trying to get through?" Lewin said once he'd contained himself.

Mephisto nodded, "yes, I doubt Lucifer will make a direct move once he discovers his curse was broken. He'll allow chaos to spread first, and I think you'll remember what I said the world will look like once that happens."

"A virtual hell on Assiah." Lewin's murmured words had Rin wincing, knowing their reality would look a lot different in a few days.

"Precisely!" Mephisto said, more cheer on his face than Rin thought everyone in the room could handle at the moment, if the way stress lined their faces was any hint. Although, given Mephisto had returned from certain death, Rin would take what was coming over the alternative.

"Now," the sly gleam in Mephisto's eyes had Rin sharing another glance with Amaimon, sensing the building storm as that shark's smile was turned on Shima, "why don't you run along to Lucifer and tell him the good news."

"The," Shima said, gulping, the nervous patter of his pulse picking up, "good news, Sir?"

Green flicked to Rin and Amaimon before settling on Shima again, "tell him congratulations! His plan worked exactly as intended, this time. But he was wrong about one thing."

"Oh god," Shima stuttered out under his breath, "ok, got it- uh, so what's the one thing he got wrong?"

Rin's heart squeezed, a smile tugged at his lips.

"Humanity wasn't the missing piece to the equation," Mephisto said, leaning forward with a purr rumbling softer than human hearing could pick up, "I and Amaimon were quite capable of breaking half of the curse, despite his perceived interference."

"But," he said to cover the sharp inhales he got, then he bared his fangs and dropped the final revelation, "he was right that Rin was the key to the other half."

Several heartbeats skipped, the room echoing with them as time stretched.

"_What?_"

"Ow," Rin muttered as the shriek from Bon pierced his ears.

"Rin!" Shura followed the cry with her own, the suspicion from earlier falling away and replaced by surety.

"It was a long week, ok?" Rin grumbled at the disbelief he could see on Konekomaru, Shima, and Bon's faces.

"Dude, I thought you were into Moriyama," Shima blurted out, gesturing at Mephisto to make his point, "how'd you go from a babe like her to _him?_"

Ok, now Rin was irritated.

"It's easy," he said, forcing his hackles down, "I fell in love with Mephisto and Amaimon. That's it, it's not complicated."

"_Him too?_" Had that been Bon or Shura? They both echoed each other, Bon yanking at his hair again with the hand he'd jerked there.

A strangled sound of glee had Rin glaring at Lewin, waiting for his two cents in building exasperation. Was it really that unbelievable?

"How did that work with Sir Pheles in a coma?" Rin let his lip curl over a fang at the question, but Lewin ignored it to keep talking, "did you love him beforehand? Did he have awareness in his state? This is crazy!"

Before Rin let Lewin know exactly how little he was interested in answering any of those questions, Mephisto came to the rescue again.

"As I've said, Mr. Lewin, I'll be drafting a detailed report for the Grigori in which your curiosities should be satisfied."

Rin startled as a warm touch settled in a loose clasp to his fingers, blinking down to see Mephisto's entwined there.

It hit him with a twinge beneath his ribs that Mephisto had reached out under his own power. He wasn't trapped anymore.

Irritation chased away, Rin fixed a firm stare at the taken-aback expressions caught on where he returned Mephisto's hold.

"Now then!" Mephisto's bright words had bafflement replacing the shock, "It's been quite the ordeal, as I'm sure you can imagine."

His fingers left Rin's, going to steeple on the desk.

"That's it?" Shima said, jerking his gaze around the room.

"I don't really think there's much more we can do," Konekomaru breathed out, still watching Rin like he'd never seen him before.

"I'll need to re-familiarize myself with the state of things," Mephisto continued over them, "so, if you'll excuse us for the day, we'll be retiring to Faust Manor."

Shura's sharp look at Rin had him hardening his stance, waiting for her to say something to stop him from going.

Knocking at the door kept her from it, Yukio's muffled voice as he announced his presence further stalling her.

"I've brought Shiemi and Izumo, Sir Pheles," Yukio said, stepping into the room. He stood aside, and Rin was faced with Shiemi's hopeful gaze.

He went around the desk to accept the hug as she flung herself into his arms, laughter choked but still clear in relief.

"I knew you'd come back, I knew you would," Shiemi repeated against his collar.

"This place was depressing without you," Izumo sniffed where she'd hung back at Yukio's side in, defensive, "these idiots wouldn't stop moping."

Rin snorted, leaving Shiemi to hug Izumo and getting a screech of affront for it, though a moment later she returned the hug, muttering, "it's good you're home so we can finally focus on our exams again."

"Thanks, Izumo," Rin said as he let her go, satisfied to see his claim over her and Shiemi. That was almost everyone, he just needed to find Kuro and he'd be settled.

"Sorry it took so long, everyone, did we miss the briefing?" Yukio said as he looked to Mephisto.

Shima let out an incredulous giggle, "oh man, teach', you're gonna love this. Good luck."

Yukio's brows scrunched, "good luck?"

"Hope you're ready for groomsmen duties." Shima whistled the first few notes of what Rin recognized as the traditional wedding song, moving to pass Yukio and clapping him on the shoulder in solidarity, "I've gotta go do spy things, and I'm not sure which is the harder job."

"Groomsmen duties?" Yukio's mumbled question trailed off, brows scrunching in confusion.

"How's that even going to work?" Bon said, and Rin could see his mind struggling, though he couldn't figure out which part was causing the difficulty, "there's three of them!"

Konekomaru sighed and patted Bon on the back, "should we go, then, Sir Pheles? Or do you need to tell us anything else?"

"Run along," Mephisto said, shaking his head and gesturing to the door, "Rin will see you in class this week."

They left, Lewin with another incredulous laugh and hungry eyes drifting over Rin a final time, and Shura with a wry huff Rin thought might have meant she was over her shock.

The door shut, leaving Yukio, Shiemi, and Izumo waiting for their own debriefing.

With the room's occupants making it feel like less of an interrogation, Rin made himself comfortable sitting on the edge of Mephisto's desk. He got a frown from Yukio in what he was sure was an unspoken nudge to show some decorum, but Rin had a feeling he would forget about it after what he heard.

"Would you like to take the lead on this, Rin? Or should I?" Mephisto said once he'd settled.

He shrugged at Mephisto's question, "I guess I can."

Where to begin? Rin sighed, mind going over the week, following the sequence of events back to the alley it started in while his audience waited.

"How's Kuro?" Rin began, memories of his familiar taking hits to cover their escape at the forefront of his mind.

His question had Yukio blinking, probably startled by the abruptness, but after Rin waited for him to answer, he overcame the surprise to speak, "he's ok, he's at home- er, the new home."

New home? Rin cocked his head, about to ask, when Yukio continued to explain, "Shura and I were given new accommodations by the Order. I have an apartment in the city, now."

Something about the way Yukio said it had Rin saddened, realizing he would miss the run-down dorm they'd been given by Mephisto. And where had Ukobach gone with their absence?

"You guys have been busy, too, huh," Rin said, laughing to cover the unease.

"It's a single bedroom," Yukio blurted out like he couldn't stop himself, and his shoulders had tensed as if anxious, "I had to put your things into storage. But don't worry, I'll see about getting a new place and you can use the couch in the meantime- or the bed and I'll use the couch."

Rin rubbed at his hair, ducking to quirk a grin at Yukio from beneath his bangs, "ah, that's ok, Yukio, I can get my stuff later. I have a place already."

"You," Yukio froze, "have a place?"

"Yeah," and it was the baffling cherry on top of the crazy sundae he'd found himself with because Rin still couldn't believe what his life had turned into as he said, "I'm gonna be moving in with Mephisto and Amaimon."

How many times would he drop a room into silence just by that announcement? Rin kept the smile on his face to the flabbergasted expressions staring back. Behind him, he could hear a snerk from Mephisto. Amaimon sighed, the sounds of him poofing another sucker into existence and more clacking the only ones in the room.

"I'm sure Sir Pheles will need time to recover," Yukio said, a sputter that trailed to a polite cough and frantic eyes flicking to Mephisto as if trying to cover for Rin's social faux pas, "you shouldn't impose, Rin."

Shiemi and Izumo watched the exchange, looking totally lost, and Rin wondered at how easily Mephisto had directed the conversation when he just seemed to be causing more confusion.

Waving his hand, Rin tried to restart things.

"No really, Yukio, it's fine, you'll understand once I finish telling you guys what happened."

"Oh, this is going to be good," Izumo said, half under her breath.

"So, it's like this," he cut in before Yukio could chastise him, "we had to go to a bunch of demon kings because Amaimon didn't know the cure to the curse but _they_ might have- and they're pretty much all in Gehenna. You got my voicemail, right?"

He searched Yukio's gaze, hoping he was following so far. The tell-tale signs of stress had formed on him, fingers rubbing at the bridge of his nose beneath his glasses, but at least he hadn't told Rin to stop, yet.

"And we got to Iblis," Rin hurried on, "and she told us Lucifer was in Gehenna, but her son, Aw-something, is a real jackass and called Satan's armies on us and we had to run all the way across a desert to the mountains."

By then, Yukio had closed his eyes, lines of tension increasing. Shiemi looked concerned at his side, hand coming to rest on his shoulder, and Izumo just cast a long-suffering stare to the ceiling.

God, he really sucked at explaining things. Rin could imagine the way Mephisto would be fighting laughter, but at this point he was determined to finish. He huffed a deep breath, "yeah, so, Amaimon was a total badass and put up a huge wall and we were able to escape for a bit, but then we kinda got ambushed by the hot springs in the mountains and he had to break my sword."

Panic and Yukio's eyes shooting open to race over him had Rin shaking his hands to wave the rising storm away before it struck, "it's cool, I lived!"

"Ah," Rin had a sudden thought, wincing as he turned back to Mephisto, who wasn't even bothering to hide his smirk, "sorry, we kinda left it in Gehenna."

Now, even Amaimon had a smirk curling his lips up around his sucker, though at a sharp glance from Mephisto, he found a corner of the room to stare blankly at.

"And," Rin drew the word out, preemptively wincing at the next part he would have to reveal, "that's how I got this crazy new look. Also, it kinda alerted Satan to me being in Gehenna."

Ok, he deserved the long exhale from Yukio, and he didn't think the explanation behind it would make him any less exasperated. Rin couldn't help that he'd been distracted thinking about claims and Amaimon! Also about Mephisto and the fate of his twin.

"Anyway, then we got to this big open valley and fought those demons and Satan kept popping up in their bodies to talk bullshit to me," he could have phrased that better, if the terror lancing through his friends' expressions was anything to go on, "and then we took out the army and Satan tried to possess us but we tossed him out on his ass."

"Oh, Rin," Yukio's sigh was nearly a groan, exasperation edging into true concern that had guilt stinging at Rin. Especially once he saw the dark bruises under Yukio's eyes and realized a week had gone by where the last thing Yukio had heard from him was that he was going to Gehenna with a demon neither of them trusted at that stage.

"We made it to Lucifer's territory," Rin said, sobering and hoping it let Yukio know he hadn't treated it like a game. He'd given it _everything_ he had to make it home to him and the others, "and we found out he's the one who stuck it on Mephisto in the first place."

Lucifer's actions still sent anger simmering in his chest Rin didn't think would fade anytime soon, even if it was irrational, like being angry at the sun for following the path it took every day. It didn't mean he had to like it.

"But we got him to tell us the cure." They had, after everything, after all Gehenna had to throw at them, and Rin kept that hard-won victory close to steel him against whatever else would come their way. "And then we came home."

He broke from the heavy thoughts, a slow smile spreading on his face. "And here we are."

The expected minute where they didn't respond still had his tail coiling tighter to his waist and his leg swung to knock at the side of Mephisto's desk.

"Um," Shiemi hesitated in saying, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth until Rin's questioning hum made her speak, "but why are you staying with Sir Pheles again? It's just, you said we'd understand at the end."

Oh. Rin felt his cheeks heat at the lapse, rushing to answer her, "well, so the cure to the curse is kinda weird."

Yukio and Izumo both had brows raised, mirroring each other, while Shiemi waited with her usual patience.

"It turns out the cure is true love's kiss."

There went that dead silence again. At this point he didn't think he'd ever get anything else, no matter who he told.

"No," Izumo drew out, mouth twitching in an incredulous smile, "no way, pull the other one."

Izumo's words deepened Rin's flush, a pang going through him that he fought not to react to. His hand twitched in an aborted movement towards his chest before furling in his lap.

It was fine if they didn't understand. Rin knew that. He hadn't nearly died to start doubting himself, not at this stage. But, it was just- he didn't want to fight about the one thing he was sure in.

"Wait, Rin," Yukio said in another stutter, "you can't just say these things, this is serious!"

Only Shiemi watched with startled green eyes, staring at him as if pressing things together one puzzle piece at a time.

"I assure you, he's quite serious, Mr. Okumura." Mephisto speaking up made Rin realize his heart had begun to race.

"Sir Pheles?" Yukio sounded alarmed, like he'd lost control.

"The cure to the curse inflicted on me is exactly as Rin said," Mephisto continued, "and I was woken by both Amaimon and Rin."

"And," Rin said before Yukio could misinterpret it any further, "I fell in love with Amaimon, too."

A noise strangled in Izumo's throat, though before the hurt could well in Rin again, she spoke, "leave it to you to find a cure to a curse everyone thought was a death sentence and somehow have that be the _least_ impossible thing you accomplished."

His heartbeat skittered, a tentative smile forming as he let out a slightly breathless laugh, "yeah, I know, right?"

In the same way Izumo had led the charge amongst their friends after they'd learned about his heritage, she'd accepted him without anything more than her trademark scathing judgement that hid what she really meant.

Her acceptance spurred Shiemi into speaking, beaming at him with a light blush of her own on her face, "that's wonderful, Rin."

Wonderful. It _was_ wonderful and he felt the mushy thoughts rising again.

"Wonderful?" Yukio sounded faint, the disbelief in his voice pulling Rin out of his head before he got sucked in too far.

"Yeah," Rin said, trailing off as he saw Yukio was taking longer to recover than he'd thought, "er, would it be okay if I came by your new place tomorrow and saw it? And Kuro'll be there too, right?"

It was still too soon to force himself from Mephisto or Amaimon's side, but the sensation curling in his gut telling him to find Kuro and make sure he was okay wouldn't leave, would probably get worse, until he saw him again.

Plus, he still needed to know what had happened since he'd been gone, too, and that Yukio was really fine staying in the city by himself. Maybe Kuro would stay with both of them and Yukio wouldn't be by himself all the time?

Rin would visit as often as he could, just in case, he determined.

He refocused, seeing Yukio shake himself and holding his breath. What would he say? Rin had been so caught up in the excitement of being home that he hadn't considered if the way he'd gotten home would upset Yukio.

"Yukio?" Rin began, hesitantly, when Yukio opened his mouth but nothing came out.

A harsher shake of his head and Yukio smiled, though it looked baffled, as if he couldn't believe what he was about to say, "nothing, Rin, I'm just happy you're home, is all."

Relief shot a hole straight through Rin, a nervous laugh dropping from his lips. Was it really ok?

He'd grown so used to Amaimon's blunt answers to his questions that he'd forgotten how hard it was to get Yukio to say what he really meant.

"Why don't we all meet up at Yuki's place tomorrow for lunch?" Shiemi said, gasping at the idea and turning to each of them with excitement in her eyes.

That was good, Rin could stick around after to talk with Yukio and get a chance to figure out what he'd missed. He quickly agreed, "Yeah! That sounds fun."

"Sure," Yukio didn't sound any less hesitant, "I'll have to order food, I suppose."

But at least he hadn't shot down their idea.

"Excellent," Mephisto once again took the reins, a broad smile on his face, "I'm sure you will have plenty of catching up to do."

Yeah, they would. But later.

"As you can see, it's been an eventful week," Mephisto said as he straightened in his seat, "and I have a good suspicion things will only pick up from here, so you should take this time to rest and prepare."

His cautionary words tightened their expressions, and Rin hated the stress lining Yukio that he couldn't quite hide the signs of. What could he do to help him when he knew what was coming for them? He could protect himself, but he wouldn't be around all the time and they were about to be busier than ever once the barrier on the gate dropped.

"Yes, Sir Pheles," Yukio said, bowing, then he startled as Rin hopped off the desk and drew him in a hug again.

"I'll see you later, alright?" Rin waited until he got a short nod, Yukio's heart beating like a rabbit's in his chest, before pulling back to accept a hug from Shiemi.

Izumo sighed, "at least you can join us in suffering with the exams moved up to the end of year."

The what?

"No, seriously?" Rin groaned, "that's so much studying!"

Yukio's lips stretched in a grin that sent shivers down Rin's spine, suddenly looking too cheerful for the news Rin had just heard as he moved towards the door, "yes, and I've got all your readings and homework set aside that you missed."

"You can pick it up when you visit," he added, and his smile was definitely evil when he glanced back at Rin, halfway through the door.

"Bye, Rin!" Shiemi called as she followed Yukio out, Izumo waving her own goodbye, too.

The door clicked shut. They were alone.

Rin let out a deep exhale. He turned, searching for Mephisto and Amaimon.

Amaimon stared at him, brow raised and sucker long finished, but that wasn't what caught Rin's attention.

Slight trembles went through Mephisto's fingers where they lay flat to his desk, an intense look of concentration on his face. The mask of cheer had fallen, wiped clear like it had never been.

"Mephisto?" Rin began walking back to the desk, worry filling him at the sight.

His worry ratcheted up a notch when, instead of answering, Mephisto bowed forward over his hands, forehead pressing to the desk surface and his breaths coming loud in the otherwise silent room.

"Samael," Amaimon said, keeping his voice soft and scanning Mephisto at his side, close, but not touching.

Rin made it, crouching at Mephisto's other side and reaching out, pausing with his hand over his shoulder before settling it in a barely-there press. It still made Mephisto stiffen like he hid a flinch and Rin frowned, "are you okay?"

"Hah!" The harsh gasp from Mephisto sent Rin's hand twitching its hold on him, "it seems I'm not so used to physical sensation yet."

He was talking about the curse. Rin's frown deepened, wondering if that meant he should take his hand off Mephisto and began to lift it when green eyes opened to pin him with a sharp glare.

A remembered order of 'don't' the last time he'd tried to give Mephisto space had Rin freezing, then he tightened his grip and saw Mephisto subside, eyes closing again.

Meeting Amaimon's gaze over Mephisto made the decision for Rin.

"Hey," he said, getting a twitch of Mephisto's ears and rubbing his thumb in soothing circles, a bit of his fire concentrated there like he could chase the shivers away faster, "let's go home now, okay?"

Raising his hand with an abrupt nod, Mephisto steadied himself and snapped them from the office.

* * *

The familiar scents of his territory surrounded Mephisto when he carried the three of them to Faust Manor.

He'd known when he'd woken that adjusting to physical sensation would take longer than a few hours.

Going from that lukewarm hell where he'd drifted, numb, to the barrage of the waking world nearly incapacitated him if he didn't make conscious effort to keep himself together.

The brush of his clothes seemed magnified, itching in a maddening wave with every movement and even the air felt like a solid touch he couldn't escape.

If he'd had the choice, he would have taken Rin and Amaimon and gone straight to his bedroom to hide until he'd covered the reactions.

It had been necessary to make a show of their reappearance, though, before the Grigori discovered their return.

Getting the right pieces of the story laid out were key to preventing the Grigori from turning on them, but specifically from turning on Rin. His part in destroying Satan's armies would go a long way in keeping the execution order from his neck.

Once they discovered Rin had thrown off Father's possession attempts not just on himself, but for Amaimon and him, too, then they would be further calmed. It was lucky that Lewin had been the one overseeing Shura and not Angel, although Lucy and Osceola were also equally as capable of avoiding a bias towards demons.

Angel was gullible and simple enough to manipulate, but it would have been exhausting to deal with him first thing back on Assiah.

Fire branded itself to the back of his neck and Mephisto suppressed a hiss, both of frustration and the urge to press closer to the source. A simple thing like Rin's touch had become as overwhelming as if he were lost in his pyre again.

"Mephisto?" Rin's voice came through the haze and Mephisto stood, forcing it from his mind as he took in the sight of his foyer where they'd arrived.

With more effort than he liked, he halted the remaining trembles in his vessel, waiting.

A slide of shadow, and Belial appeared in the hallway.

Black eyes swept his form in appraisal and Mephisto cocked a brow, then began, "I hope you've enjoyed your vacation- and kept this place spotless in my absence. I was only gone a week and if I find so much as a speck of dust I'll discorporate you!"

"Yes, Sir," Belial said, bowing with his hand to his chest as a proper butler should. Good.

"Er." The question in Rin's voice brought Mephisto to his next point.

"Rin will be moving in with us," he waved his hand to gesture at Rin, "I expect the kitchen is fully stocked?"

"Of course, Sir."

"Wonderful," Mephisto purred, hearing the skip of Rin's heartbeat and knowing he'd be salivating over getting back in the kitchen. He shooed Belial, "you're dismissed, don't disturb us unless I call for you."

Belial bowed and left as quickly as he'd arrived. Mephisto let his lips curl in a smirk as he glanced at Rin, knowing the question about to come.

"Who was that?" Curious blue eyes met him when he faced Rin.

"My servant, Belial," Mephisto said and folded his arms to hide the trembles that had returned with Belial's absence. By the quick dart of Rin's eyes, he had noticed regardless, "you may ask him for whatever you need. Don't let him get uppity or he's an absolute terror."

He could see Rin still didn't fully understand, but if he would stay with Mephisto, then he would come to, with time.

Amaimon shifted from the careful stance he'd been in, coming around to level a sullen glare at Rin. He sniffed, wrinkling his nose.

"You smell like others." Amaimon scowled. It further distracted Rin from his concern, though whether Amaimon had meant to have that effect or not was up for debate.

"Oh, yeah," Rin huffed a sigh, wrinkling his own nose before flashing an amused smile at them, "it's so weird. I guess I got used to just us, but all I can think about is finding a shower and getting rid of everyone."

How sweet. Mephisto could practically coo at the way they'd formed their own little tight-knit pack. It would be fascinating to see the way they interacted with Rin's selected humans, since he doubted he'd be leaving Rin's side until the conflict with Lucifer and Father ended.

For one, he'd never seen Amaimon quite so possessive. He was almost _clingy_. Mephisto watched as Rin accepted Amaimon into his arms, Amaimon doing his best to cover the other scents Rin had picked up with his hugging, never mind the tears from all the happy reunions.

Well, Amaimon would have to get used to Rin smelling like others or he'd be a very unhappy demon. Their Rin was ever the social butterfly.

"Oh!" Rin said, jerking him from his thoughts and bringing Amaimon up from where he'd buried his nose in Rin's hair, "since I'm on a roll keeping promises, I can bake that cake I said I would once we saved you."

"Yes." Amaimon already looked like he would pull Rin there by his hand if they didn't move fast enough.

"That," Mephisto snapped and took them to the kitchen, beaming as Rin's eyes began to glow at the sight of all the space at his disposal, "is a perfect idea, Rin."

"Woah," Rin breathed, "there's so much stuff."

"Have at it," he spread his arms to indicate what he suspected would become Rin's new space within his territory in short order.

Something stopped Rin, gaze going to Mephisto where he'd sat at the island counter besides Amaimon.

"You don't need to sleep or anything?"

Sleep? Mephisto's eyebrows drew as he tried to understand Rin's question.

"Like, it's not too much, too soon?" Ah, Rin was still worried about his lapse in control, possibly even from a general disbelief that he'd woken at all. He would have to get a handle on himself quickly or suffer Rin's extended concern. Not that he wouldn't gladly take more attention.

But, "I have had more uninterrupted sleep in the last week than my entire existence," Mephisto said, carefully resting his arms on the counter and accounting for the shock of the cool marble through his clothes. "And, I would never pass up the chance at your cooking."

His gaze slid to Amaimon from the corner of his eyes and Mephisto smiled, "I'll be fending off Amaimon from my share enough as it is."

The little imp had devoured the one Rin had left him the last time and Mephisto wasn't fool enough to give him another chance with a second cake.

Rin relaxed with a laugh, returning to his hunt for ingredients and Mephisto enjoyed the various pleased sounds he made whenever he discovered a new toy to add to his arsenal.

Amaimon's slumped form caught his attention next, and he idled time considering the unexpected anomaly he'd somehow never discovered in any other timeline. Amaimon was a rock overturned to reveal the life beneath it, or the heart of a geode, unassuming on the outside but multi-faceted once cracked open.

That he'd been hiding such depths made Mephisto want to dig deeper until he'd uncovered what else he may have missed with his wide blindspot. It was annoying that Egyn had seen it first, really.

"Taste." Rin's sudden appearance opposite them had Mephisto dropping his jaw on automatic reflex to the light command.

Sugar exploded on his tongue, the creamy aftertaste from the frosting Rin had made short-circuiting his mind.

"_Mmf_."

The miscalculation cost him, Mephisto reduced to shivers again and holding up a hand to forestall whatever Rin would say as he jerked the reins of control over his vessel.

"That was magnificent, Rin," Mephisto managed to croak out, "just unexpected."

This adjustment period was going to be hell on his image and his pride, Mephisto could already tell.

"Ah! Amaimon, not so much," Rin hissed, and Mephisto let a wry twist pull at his lips at another successful distraction by Amaimon, though he was sure it was unintentional this time, as Rin yanked the bowl of frosting from greedy claws.

Glaring at the smug expression painting Amaimon's face, Rin went back to his task, though he didn't remain quiet for long.

"You know, I was thinking," Rin began, back turned to them and tail swaying in a way that made it hard to focus on his words, "about what I wanted to do when we made it home."

"I wanted to go explore more of Assiah," he continued, the words perking Amaimon up, "you know, like see volcanoes like Iblis' and stuff like that. I didn't realize how much was out there."

"And we can play," Amaimon cut in, energy returned with Rin's words and no longer slouching like he would fall asleep in the next moment, "you said we could- with your flames, too."

"Heh, yeah, I remember," Rin laughed, "I was thinking about that earlier. I can't wait!"

The familiar patterns of their conversation passed over Mephisto, lulling him as he listened to his two voices. He paid half a mind to the various topics, the plans for the future and the tone taking him back to his week where he hadn't had anything else but them, not even his name.

"Mephisto." The sound of his name- his _name-_ brought the outside world back in a rush and shook him from his head.

Without him noticing, they'd focused on him, and Mephisto realized he'd grown used to being the silent observer to their conversations, an inactive participant while events went on without his interference. The concept was _novel_.

Actually moving his head let him see Rin had stuck the cake in the oven, though when he'd done so had passed Mephisto by.

When Rin saw he'd heard him, he spoke, "I was thinking about this earlier, too, if maybe you would want to fight- er play-"

He darted a look towards Amaimon as if checking that he'd used the right word, continuing when he got a raised brow, "-if you'd play with us, too."

An invitation to play? Laughter bubbled up in his chest, surprising him when it broke past his lips despite the instincts saying that it shouldn't, that it was still stuck behind an immovable barrier. The laughter became harsh, and he couldn't stop himself now that he'd started, getting a taken aback frown from Rin and Amaimon falling into a wary scan to his body.

"I'm sorry," Mephisto pressed a hand to his mouth, startling again at the movement, but it allowed him to wrench his jaw shut with a clack of fangs. Inhaling several breaths got the rest under control and he brought his hand away to wipe at a tear from his eye.

"Yes," he said firmly, crushing the overwhelming urge to writhe and lash out and scream his vessel raw until he _bled_ because he wasn't a newly formed ego. He'd been through that once and could do it again, "I think, given the lengths you both went through, that playing should be more than just reward."

Now, he could see he had Amaimon's utter focus, not that he hadn't had it before with his out-of-character loss of control. Amusement overtook Mephisto's frustration at his short-comings at the glow in gold eyes.

At Amaimon's curled legs in the stool he sat on, his tail swayed, wagging like a new demon that hadn't learned control- or Rin. He'd let it uncoil, apparently comfortable within Mephisto's territory in a way he hadn't quite been before.

"It's been some time since I last allowed myself to play," Mephisto said as he picked at his claws, feigning disinterest in the excitement Amaimon didn't hide, "I may even let you win, if I'm feeling generous that day."

"Who said anything about letting?" Rin said, his voice edged with the hint of a growl that prickled at Mephisto's nerves. His mind went back to the battle in the mountains and the way Rin had conquered the armies of Gehenna with Amaimon. Oh, yes, he would enjoy himself deeply that day.

"We'll see then, won't we," Mephisto said and shifted to let his claws tap in a pattern to the counter, resting his cheek to the palm of his other hand.

Rin bridged the gap without pause, running his finger over Mephisto's knuckles. It would have been a casual touch if the bold little demon hadn't had flames concentrated just beneath his skin, answering challenge with challenge.

_Wonderful_.

The thought came again, even as he contained his reaction to the intense heat magnified by his sensitivity.

Amaimon drew his focus off Rin. It took him a moment to realize why, when Amaimon hadn't moved. He realized it was _because_ Amaimon hadn't moved that his instincts had been pricked. Mephisto scanned Amaimon, noticing him intent on where Rin's touch played in idle lines to his skin.

His tail had halted its pleased coils to wrap around his leg as if to hide. The body language brought to mind Amaimon's earlier agitated defensiveness, the guarded way he'd protected against their rejection.

Ah. He knew what the problem was.

Still hesitant, even after he'd professed something as incomprehensible as love to him and completed a claim bond. Mephisto rolled his eyes as he unlooped his tail from his waist and let it fall from beneath his untucked shirt to twine with Amaimon's, not allowing the instinctive attempt to rip free.

Shock met his movements, a wide gaze jerking to him as Amaimon stiffened.

"If you want to touch me, Amaimon, there's nothing holding you back but yourself. Do you understand?"

He'd thought with the blatant words he'd used, that more than power determined worth, Amaimon would have been able to shunt aside the hierarchy that had defined their dealings with each other up until now.

By the cagey expression on Amaimon, he could see he would have to clarify things a bit more.

"Do you know," Mephisto said as he pinned Amaimon with his stare and his tone, "how, exactly, I broke the curse?"

"You mean," Rin spoke softly, "how you figured out you loved us?"

"Just so," he nodded, seeing curiosity build in Amaimon.

How to explain the bitterness that ate at his mind, the sheer exhaustion sapping the life from his core every breath he took, when all he had was the brief moments of awareness.

Awareness and, "You were the voices in my head. Watching you, when I had nothing else, gave me the strength to fight."

Through every siren song telling him to give in, sleep, succumb to the curse and his endless prison, there had been two voices that sparked embers in his core, even at his lowest when he'd _despised_ the freedom they enjoyed and the company they kept with each other.

"I couldn't leave you to an uncertain future." Mephisto had railed against death, his death, but mostly, at the end, he'd been terrified about one thing. "The thought of you two having to face the coming storm without me was too much."

So, "Do you understand, Amaimon?"

A long beat passed.

Amaimon let go of the unnatural stillness, nodding in a single, slow motion of his head with a simple utterance, "ah."

Rin tossed a smile at them, then went to take the finished cake from the oven, filling the kitchen with the sweet scent that mingled with theirs. Amaimon shifted, head coming to rest at Mephisto's shoulder as they watched Rin frost the cake.

This time, he didn't flinch.

* * *

End Notes:

So like, now what?

Actually I DO know what ;) get ready for a 6 chapter sequel to this and starting up my next long one-shot a la It's A Scent Thing (aka another pwp with a fun threesome you guys will enjoy that ISN'T the ot3), so much fanart I've had waiting on the sidelines for me to finish this chapter, and, of course, Incandescence~

Also! While I'm starting up that next chunk of my list, I'll leave you guys with a shout out of my favorite authors/fics for aoex, both on ao3 and ffnet :D

I made a post with the list on my tumblr here:

tboesart. tumblr post/618601483756290048/heey-just-stopping-by-to-let-you-know-your

(Annd remove the spaces in the link again)

With a little summary about why I love each those particular fics so much. So if you're looking for more to read while waiting for me to update more stuff, there's a bunch there!

www. tboesart. tumblr post/ 618601483756290048/ heey-just-stopping-by-to-let-you-know-your

(Annd remove the spaces in the link again)

With a little summary about why I love each those particular fics so much. So if you're looking for more to read while waiting for me to update more stuff, there's a bunch there!


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